Smash X Revolution
by Ishida Sasuke
Summary: Second volume on the Smash X series. Four years have happened and it seems everything is peaceful, yet without Matthew around Maquiel knows her life is not good, and yet she and Samus are about to find out the truth about the side they took on. R
1. Flash Forward

_**Author Note**__: Here we go again! First of all I must say I'm impressed that Smash X Evolution got over 5,000 hits! It's a great accomplishment for me, now that's the highest hit I got on a story so far =D. So I'll try to keep it better and this time this volume is for real, nothing is perfect so it will definitely have some mistakes, but I won't delete it for that reason. For the ones who read the previous beta, you'll notice something's remain and some others are different, mostly is the narration what changes along with story's plot for this arc. Also I told you I'd bring this sooner, sorry I lied, there have been a lot of things going on, but anyway here we are!_

_Ok! Maquiel, let's do this!_

_Maquiel: Remember, ishida_sasuke owns only his OC, not the story or the characters. Some day I'll have my own copyrights! Hell yeah!_

**Flash Forward**

"So, are we ready?"

"The groom is already making his entrance, so let's only wait for mom."

It was a nice day; everyday was. It's ironic; it was supposed to be some kind of Apocalypses, but it wasn't anything like that, we were even celebrating a wedding!

It's been four years since Matthew left the party and nothing really happened. I trained hard as hell every day and I was becoming every time stronger and smarter at fighting. Pit used all those four years to teach me the basics concepts of combat, reading ahead the enemy movements and everything, but it was never put into practice. After all these years, I've not seen Matthew, nor Gabriel, or even one guy who ever helped Wolf. It was like they were gone for good.

Government restored itself; after the chaos caused by Wolf massacre on the Government Building they had to take dramatic strategies in order to calm the population and restore international support. As if it wasn't enough, afterwards Wolf's coup d'etat, Chile suffered a strong earthquake. Yeah, government was living a hell, but it eventually restored itself with the new elections. As for us, we were always ready for battle, training every day, shaping our senses in order to detect them, but there was no single track of them, not even Melanie, nor could Sophie see them at all. So, eventually we had to move on with our lives. And now, a teenage Melanie- who was larger, and attractive- along with a young adult me- with longer, straight hair, larger height and thinner face-, were acting as made of honor for Sophie's wedding. She was skeptical about this at first, but eventually she grew to accept it.

Link and Ash were keeping the door so the guests could find their way in and also could feel protected by them. No stranger would ever recognize them with their tuxedos; even Link's ears were hiding by a coup hat.

Salaric walked forward, he was about to reach the shrine where he would get married in no time. He looked backward and felt sad; there were no guests on either side, only us to stare. I wondered what could have happened to Sophie's family, after all, I never heard anything about her relatives, I only knew Melanie and Matthew and in four years I never got to hear of anyone else beside Matthew's father Vincent.

The flows of thoughts were stopped when Sophie entered on the room. She was dressed in the classic white dress that covered everything from her chest to under and continued in a small tail dress. It wasn't astonishing, but it was pretty. I felt nostalgic about it; I would like to be walking like her, towards to my beloved Matthew. She was doing that now, and she was received kindly by Salaric.

"You've made me so happy Sophie," he said before we started "since the moment you took care of me…"

"Shhh," she said "you can say all that later, now let's do this."

"Yes ma'am."

It was touching for me, seeing the whole ceremony in such time as our. It was sunny outside, spring, and the world seemed to me right in just this very second. A tear came from my face and I cleaned it right away.

After the whole speech from the priest, they exchanged rings and were officially husband and wife.

The smashers clapped widely to show they're excitement, but they were all hidden, so nobody saw them while clapping, the only suspicious thing was a yell from Pikachu that made everyone look upwards to the ceiling from where the yell came from. I wasn't sure if he was cheering for the wedding or if he was being under attack.

"Do you sense anything, Melanie?"

"No, nothing." She answered me "I haven't in four years."

I had to admit that a part of me wanted it to be an alarm, something that guides us to fight Matthew. I wanted to find him and bring him back to his senses. But there was no need to, he never showed up.

"There's something missing here." Melanie said faintly.

"Matthew."

We both looked downwards with sadness in our eyes.

"Maybe it's time to move on, Maquiel."

"What do you mean?"

"Wolf hasn't been seen in years, not one of the smashers. We've been training so hard, and for what reason? All what he wanted was to have Matthew and now he does… he never tried to conquer the world or anything like that."

"And is it ok to leave Matthew at his mercy?"

"He agreed on his own, nobody forced him."

I was getting a little bit pissed by what Melanie was telling me, but I contained my anger.

"Don't you think he want us to be happy?"

"I'm sure about that, but it doesn't make sense Melanie," I replied "I mean, if it was just Wolf then maybe, but what about Gabriel? Snake, Falco, everyone else, did they just fight so Wolf could get Matthew? What did they win? There's something wrong about it. If they haven't been seen in four years is because they are planning something big, and we must be careful, we are less than them."

"Yeah you are right," she replied smiling "I would like to see him too."

I could not guess how Melanie felt, but I was torn apart while thinking of not seeing Matthew again. Then, looking at the empty seat where he should have been I realized that there was someone else missing. Robert.

"Melanie, when was the last time you met Robert?"

"Before he took a flight to Japan a month ago, he was going to meet a high Dan Judo fighter and I think he was raising to… seventh Dan? I'm not sure, but he is a red belt now."

"He has become strong," I commented "just as everyone."

The years toughened us all; in different ways, but in the end we were all stronger.

The celebration lasted for hours and we really enjoyed it. I think I never saw Sophie that happy in a long time… in fact, the last time I saw her that happy Matthew was still around. I smiled at her when she and Salaric where leaving for the hotel where they would spend the night and afterwards the house would be at my and Melanie's care for some days while they went to Hawaii for their honeymoon.

"Take good care of her." I told Salaric before the car started running.

"I will." He answered with a huge smile in his face. I could tell he felt nostalgic, he did not remember what a family was, but he was starting a new one.

The both of them left and eventually both me and Melanie got back home with the gifts. Link, Ash and Lucas helped us with them through the road to home. The night was shining briskly, the star seemed sad that night.

We finally arrived home. It was late, but nobody wanted to sleep.

"Now what?" Link asked "Will be always waiting for the enemy to move or we are going to do something?"

Melanie held his hand kindly and then she spoke calmly:

"Wolf has not made a single move yet, they can't be located, not in the desert, nor in any of my visions either, what can we exactly do?"

"For starters," Ash suggested "why don't we ask our angel boy what he knows about the topic?"

"I've tried," I assured "but he is very reticent of giving me any kind of information."

"Why do we trust Pit so much in the first place?" Lucas asked.

That question was a taboo one; we all asked ourselves that, but the fact of being saved by him so many different times made it hard to see him as an enemy, although we were all aware he could be just as Wario was, a spy, a traitor.

"We don't," I answered firmly "I'm going to get as much information as I can and then, if I figure that he is going to sell us for good or anything, my plasma whip will pierce his throat."

"Pit is tougher than that" Link warned me "and smarter too. If you want to keep an eye on him, you ought to be careful, he must not notice any change in your attitude or anything."

He was right, I could not let myself unguarded when I was around him.

I stared at the Peach trophy and I thought about the grey base; death. Then my mind reminded Mario, who was still in coma. I missed the times when we used to use this very living room as a strategy headquarters, looking for the way to stop Wolf. Now, we weren't even looking for the same as back then.

Eventually, everyone went to sleep, but I couldn't, I just stared at the trophy and I wondered about how it would feel. Was she watching us all trapped there? Was she in heaven? Or was she dreaming? It was the same as wondering about human death, you could not know until you die.

I stood up and walked downstairs to where Mario was sleeping. He breathed so normally, as if he was just sleeping, like a baby. A tear shed of my face as I wished that he would wake up and shape shift back to Matthew, but I knew that could not happen.

I got out of the house, sick of the environment there. Was Melanie right? Was it time to drop everything? Was it time to finally give up?

I received an unexpected call from an unknown number on my cell phone. I picked it up from the night table and answered.

"Hello?"

"Is it you Maquiel?"

The voice made me freeze. It was my father.

I gulped; I was sure that Sarah made everything to keep them as far from me as possible and so did Pit. Then, why was he calling me? How did he get my number? Since the last time we met I changed it around fifteen times. I took deep breath thinking on my words carefully.

"Are you ok?"

"Yes, I'm… no, I'm not."

"Did anything happen to you? Is mom safe? Is Sarah ok?"

"Yes, they are," his answer was brief and almost cold "I called you for some others reasons…"

"How did you get my number? Who gave it to you?"

"That doesn't matter Maquiel, we are going for you."

"Oh, that's not happening dad!" I replied "If you want to start acting like a caring father you could have done that many years ago!"

"Are you still mad at that?"

"Hell I'm!" I answered shedding tears out of anger "How am I supposed to forget? And also, if I decided to keep myself out of your reach is so that you can be safe, so don't screw that! At least for mom's and Sarah's sake!"

For an instance I was afraid; afraid that he was being watched, that he knew everything, which may be only Wolf controlling everything he was saying so he could lure me somewhere.

"This is different Maquiel; I won't let you to put yourself in danger."

"You don't know anything about me dad… you never did. FYI, I've been in constant danger for almost like four years, so don't come now to say you have to protect me. I'm not a child! You better protect Sarah!"

I could hear how his voice was now faint and I reminded how Gabriel was after he met his father. What if he was captive? Or if he was working for Wolf? My heart started beating fast and strong, scared of the possibility. I was praying so it wasn't like that.

He finally said:

"August 23. Remember."

The call finished and as soon as it was I threw the cell phone in the street and stomp on it as hard as I could. Then I started breathing fast, while a noisy steps where on the silent night. I sharpened my senses, trying to recognize the sound, but it was quite fast. Then, my surroundings were changing into one blue big platform floating in subspace. This was rare, especially because Matthew destroyed the subspace.

"Didn't you remember that I did this when I first recruited you?"

I looked at the shape behind me; it was Gabriel's in Fox's form.

"Gabriel." I said out loud.

"I'm Fox now, Gabriel is dead."

His words were so cold that I felt scared of that. But then I frowned and smiled.

"No he hasn't." I replied. For some reason I was happy, I didn't even care about asking of his rare ability "If you are here, then Matthew must be somewhere too!"

"He's not for you to reach," he said "and if you were smart you wouldn't be looking for him."

"Why not?"

"You have a role to play, just as Gabriel, just as Matthew," he said calmly "Gabriel did well on becoming a perfect vessel for me and now here I am, and so Matthew is for Wolf, so the only one left is you."

"I'm already bonded with Samus" I replied back.

Then, before he said anything, I understood what he meant and my face turned red.

"I'm not going to do the same thing Matthew did. I won't make his mistake."

"Mistake?" he asked releasing a brief laugh "Do you know why I'm here?"

"I supposed so you could kill me off."

"Wrong." He replied "I'm just a messenger, and you don't have to be scared of it Maquiel, you don't have to fight at all, all you gotta do is act as normal and when the time comes, you'll do just as Gabriel and Matthew did."

"_Yeah, sure." _Samus commented on my head laughing "_Like I'd let that happen."_

I stared at Gabriel, his words were really suspicious, but I knew I would not do such a thing.

"Do you want to see him that badly?"

"He's still there," I answered "I'm going to draw him out from Wolf's control."

"Please, do so!" his answer just thrilled me more "That's exactly how you are going to do it."

"Excuse me?"

"You'll try and you'll fail," he finally said "and in the end, in the despair you are going to play your role; even while I'm telling you that, you are such strong headed that you won't listen at all. You'll ask everyone and they'll tell you to give up, but you won't, because it's not who you are. In the end, you will play under Lord Wolf's game."


	2. Don't look back again

**Don't look back again**

"You sure you are ok?"

"Yeah, I'm."

A short and final answer; I was still puzzled about what Gabriel told me, but in the end it was all a dream. When he said his final words I woke up in my bed next to Melanie, I suppose my brain wanted to give me a false hope about Matthew's hideout. I sighed and I got up, another peaceful day. It was not like I wanted something bad to happen, but everything was so normal, so common that I couldn't get used to it. The days were a routine, training, rest, hanging out with Melanie and the fellas, training again and then sleep time. I had my own house, but I spent most of the time in Melanie's house so we could be together in any eventually.

Even the smashers were now questioning their reasons to be here. They had no battle to fight, humans never noticed them and Wolf's party never showed up, so the only one who cared about staying was Link, because of Melanie, but for Ash, Lucas and Pikachu there was no reason at all, just being protected from the outside world. Nobody believed any longer that Matthew would ever appear again, not even me.

One day I walked down the city until I reached a bridge and stared at the dirty Mapocho River. It was almost dry, only a weak tiny flow of water still ran around the river. I took a picture out of my pocket and I stared at it next. It was from the day we graduated, I took a picture along Matthew, Gabriel and asked Robert (whom we invited to the ceremony) smiling. We decided that it would be the memory that would stick us as ally. It never worked. Somehow the three of them ended betraying me in different times. I laughed at it, and I threw the photo on the muddy water as I walked around the bridge, now I didn't know what reason was for me to be able to shape shift.

"Is it really necessary anymore?" I asked to myself.

"_Are you really giving up? After all what Pit prepared you for?"_

"What can I say Samus? I lost my time." I stated inside "It was stupid for me to think it'd work."

"_Do you really think it's over?"_

"Wolf sought for Matthew and he has him now, why would he attack us?"

"_You got such a bad memory Maquiel."_

"What do you mean?"

"_Bowser left us, there's also Ike. We haven't known anything from them, but they are not in our side, nor Wolf's. If they were to attack, who would defend the city? You know better than I that you always liked the heroine role."_

Although it was true I wasn't really interested in fighting them, I would only turn them into trophies and then…. What? The only real thing I wanted to do was unreachable for me at the time, there was no chance to fight Wolf yet, I wanted to struggle with him so badly, but… the only place I could dream of fighting him was my dream.

"_We've been waiting too much time for them to appear, shouldn't we start searching for them?"_

"Have you been asleep all the time? That's what we've been doing the last two years!"

"_Wolf might have Matthew, but he's still there and you know that. Try to think as Matthew, if you wouldn't want to be detected, where do you think he would go?"_

"I'm pretty sure Wolf's the mind behind the hideout, after all he is smarter than Matthew."

"_Then try something that might relate Wolf! Have you tried reading Vincent's diary?"_

"Melanie has read it whole in any possible way, if there was something there…"

"_At least you try! Man! You're pissing me off; I have to deal everyday the same whipping about not finding Matthew. I thought we already talked about your overdependence Maquiel, if you want something done, do it by yourself! And quit crying for god sake! You will find the man!"_

"Ok, ok, calm down, I'll give it a shot."

I sighed and then I headed back to Melanie's house briskly. The air was dense and the sky was pale, usual depressing Santiago landscape. I took a deep breath and closed my eyes, which was stupid because thanks to that I crashed with a person.

"I'm sorry!" I said immediately.

But as soon as I took a deep look on the woman I recognized her and she recognized me. Before she could escape I grabbed her arm and she struggled with might to set herself free from me, but I had an advantage, I was too strong for her to break free.

"I know you," I declared "Anna Green, aren't you?"

"Maquiel." She said softly.

As I heard from Matthew four years ago, while we were still fighting Wolf, this woman was Gabriel's mother and she was kidnapped by Wolf so he could force him to work for him. If she was here now…

"I'm so glad to see you safe and sound!" I said cheerfully as I hugged her due to the flow of joy "Is Gabriel fine? How did you manage to escape?"

"What are you talking about?" she asked scared "Escape from where?"

"From Wolf's hideout!" I said full of hopes; it wasn't a dream, or an illusion, I had a clue of Matthew's hideout "Where have they move to? How is Matthew?"

"Maquiel, I don't know what you're talking about."

"Yes, you do! You were kidnapped!"

"Are you in crack?" she yelled as she struggled to get free.

I finally lost patient, all the joy became anger and with brute strength I pushed her hard against a wall that got a little bit cracked. People around us were beginning to notice us, as my eyes burned in green flames of determination. I hit the bricks next to Anna and I broke the wall, leaving a hole bigger than my fist beside her as a warning. She started shaking.

"You are going to spit it out bitch, if they erased it from your memory I will get it back punching the hell out your brain."

"Somebody help me!" Anna asked in yells.

"You have three seconds."

"Freeze."

I didn't punch her with might, I only slapped her quite strong and she coughed a little. I stared at her in despair.

"I've been searching for them for four damn years, and now you are going to make the wait over."

"I don't know, I swear…"

I felt hands pushing me backwards as random people started helping Anna.

"Tell me now!" I commanded while I struggled with the people that were pushing me.

She didn't doubt, she started running and I got the whole people suppressing me down with one movement. Around eight different people flew in different directions as I started running towards Anna. I was reaching her in no time, and she noticed that I was faster than her, an anti natural speed for a human, an agility of a super athlete. She realized that I was about to catch her and then she halted and so I did. She stared at me with terror.

"If I tell you one thing, they will kill me."

"We can protect you." I assured "Look, I'm sorry if I slapped you earlier, but I need your help."

"You can't do anything."

"Listen to me damn it!" I yelled as I stomped the floor cracking the concrete "I've been training too hard in order to face them and I had a good teacher. If you come with us, your soon will mostly return to us."

She looked at me with a terrified expression, did she doubt? At least that would give me some time to get information. I glimpsed a little smiled that lasted less than a second and then she stared at me with her usual terrified expression as her lips moved to form words.

"I can't go with you, but… you can meet Wolf…"

"How? When?"

Her mouth suddenly shut and there was an explosion near by. The noise covered the whole area and I stared at the flying metal parts of cars that were blown apart, one even cut a person in a half. I stared at Anna who showed instant terror and then I bite my lip, I knew what I had to do.

I shape shifted to Samus form and I ran forward the mass of fire, there were consecutives explosion, but the power suit took no damage from it. I tried to detect the people around with the sensors of the power suit, there were people who were death and some other that were near of it. I took as many people out of the fire and then I was about to make a call when I felt that something landed on my back with might.

"Long time no see." The voice said as I crashed on the concrete.

I turned around and then I send a plasma rope that trapped the man's right arm. It was Snake, as I supposed.

"I never thought I'd say this, but I'm glad to see you Snake."

"Who is the one talking?" he asked "Maquiel or Samus?"

"Maquiel." I answered.

I could see the disappointment in his face as a breeze of anger passed through me. His eyes stared at me, waiting for something, he was not moving. People were looking at us; some of them while running away, some other had no idea about what to do next. It was the first time in a long time a smasher attacked.

I gave a quick look to where Anna had been; she was no longer there, just as expected, but having Snake was good enough.

"Tell me where Wolf is."

"Have you no regrets?" he completely ignored my question, I noticed he was talking to Samus "How could you do that to me?"

"Look, you're talking to me, not to Samus, and you are going to answer."

"You answer me, damn it!" Snake commanded as he drew a grenade "Or do you need me to pull the words out of your lips?"

"This is not gonna end well, Snake." I said while charging my cannon "Tell me where Wolf is, or you'll get it bad."

"Come."

I shot a charged shot; it went faster than what he could read, so not even jumping to the right he could avoid it completely, he got his leg hurt on it. Also I ran faster than what he thought I would, and I impacted a punch on his face before he could activate his grenade, and then I pointed my cannon towards his back and released a stream of fire that burnt his skin. He yelled hard, but he didn't give in. He turned around and grabbed my arm to thrust me towards the ground, but stopped the fall by landing my knee on the ground and then I punched his cheek, throwing him downwards. I stomped on him and I charged the cannon.

"This charged shot will almost surely turn you into a trophy if it doesn't kill you." I threatened as Snake gulped "You are going to lead me to Matthew."

He laughed for an instance and I punched his face with my left fist.

"I'm sorry it ends this way Samus…"

"Answer me damn it!"

"Matthew is dead, and you know that."

"I'm not having this conversation with you, and either if he's dead or alive you're taking me to him."

"Who do you think I'm afraid the most of? A perky little girl or an overpowered wolf?"

"You made the wrong choice."

I released the charged shot in his head. At the moment of the impact he became a trophy. His base was still bronze, so he was still alive, just in his trophy form. I looked around me and there were still people in the place looking at me, waiting for something, so I couldn't shape shift back to my usual self until I found somewhere to hide.

_Now I have a hint. _I would take him back with Link and the others, that way we could interrogate him, we would make sure he would spill everything out.

I almost didn't care that Anna escaped; I just wished that she would be safe and out of Wolf's reach, I'd probably have to let Pit know so he could bring her some protection as he did with my parents and Robert's.

I ran through the city until I found some alley where I could shape shift back. I held Snake's trophy tightly as I walked back to Melanie's house. I was around fifteen minutes of distance and I started to get anxious, I ran fast expecting to get there as fast as possible, and I wanted to extract as much information as I could, but I was stopped. My arm was grabbed by someone strong enough to draw me inside an empty liquor store. There I recognized Pit.

"So they finally made a move."

"Pit! What are you doing here?"

"Same thing as you, looking for hints, clues, anything that might lead us to Wolf."

"Well, you could have told me, I haven't seen you in like two weeks."

"You were the one who asked for a break." He reminded me "How is Sophie doing anyway? Is she still on her honeymoon?"

"She won't be back until Friday."

"Oh, too bad, I expected she could help us."

I stared at him.

"Can't Melanie do something about it?"

"Of course she can," he said as he noticed my puzzled face "before you start asking questions I remind you I gave you many chances and you turned around every time I was about to say anything, so now I ask you not to question me. We have a very important clue and we need to know where Wolf is."

"Weren't you the one who told me no matter how much I trained I would not defeat Wolf?"

"Yeah, so?"

"Isn't this… contradictory? I mean, I like this change of heart, but it's too sudden… sure you wanna send me right away against Wolf?"

"Maquiel, you won't fight Wolf right away, what I taught you is how to survive, we will deal with him eventually, but we first need to know what he is up to, didn't I teach you that? You need to be one step ahead of your enemies?"

I nodded and I waited for something, I wasn't sure what Pit wanted to do, he didn't seem like moving, or anything, he only stared at Snake's trophy, looking with caution at it, like if his eyes would do something about it. I gave a quick peek at the store we were. It was new, clean, and full of different kinds of drink. It was really odd that there wasn't anyone around, even people outside didn't seem like entering in the store. I stared at Pit and wondered what he did to the people here. He gave me a smile back.

"Don't worry, humans won't enter here. Now, would you be so kind to bring everyone here?"

I drew my cell phone and I called fast at Melanie. The phone rang two times and then she answered. Before she could talk I gave a quick look at the outside searching for the name of the streets. As soon as I saw them I just told them to Melanie and I hanged out, I knew she would come right away. I didn't spend any time on details, because I knew Pit, he was able to vanish in front of my view and leave me there all by myself, so I wanted to keep an eye on him.

"Shouldn't we revive him and ask?"

"Not yet, but you might want to shape shift."

"Why?"

"Should you really ask? Your power suit has more functions than just fighting, try to use it wisely."

"Ok."

I shape shifted; I didn't understand what he meant about using my power suit wisely, all what I knew about was how to launch some missiles, fire, charged shot, the zero laser… fighting was the only thing I was aware of in this suit, it let me defend myself. I gave it a deep thought, but nothing came from it. Pit sighed.

"The power suit is a high-tech suit, in which you can fight, but also you can do a lot of things, sense heat, crack passwords, among many others uses. Don't you remember that Sonic abducted you in order to crack a password to unleash the subspace?"

"Oh, yeah! It was so long ago that I didn't remember."

"If Snake has been lately with his companions then your suit may be able to detect a trace of energy that does not belong to Snake."

"Meaning?

"Imagine that you're a dog and a policeman gives you the scent of a missing person, you can smell that in anything that has the scent and then you follow it to the place where the missing person. That's what we're going to do."

"Melanie can do the same thing and I think it'll be easier for her, she sees souls and scents."

"Wolf already knows that, so maybe he took a step ahead that. Melanie hasn't been able to detect them in four years, why now?"

"Wouldn't he take prevention about me?

"Try and see if we finally found a flaw on Wolf."

"Fine, but how?"

Pit sighed again, I was starting to irritate him and I knew by experience that anything good would ever come from that. He just kept shut for a minute; I didn't know if he either ignored how or if he was expecting me how to realize about it. Either way the others managed to get to the store, they were the only people who were able to get into the place and they were as puzzled as I on why they could not see the place inside, after all humans would rarely ignore an angel boy and a cyber girl.

Melanie did not speak, but nodded.

"Nice one Pit." She said "I didn't know you controlled these kinds of spells."

"What spell?"

"He's keeping this store out from human sight." Melanie explained "I've always wondered Pit, where do you get all these powers? Teleportation, psychokinetic, spells, have you ever ate a human being?"

The question was not only rude, but an actual accusation. Melanie didn't hold any longer such a mystery; she wanted to know as badly as anyone else including me. I stared at Pit, scared that he might do something reckless, waiting for his answer.

"No, I haven't." His answer wasn't cold, it was only short, but what really kept us in doubt was his big smile "There's nothing to worry about, I'm not like Wolf."

"Where the hell do you get such powers?" This time it was Ash who asked "What are you hiding from us?"

Pit looked at me kind of annoyed, but then his face turned into a relaxed and calmed expression that made me flinch, I didn't understand what his expression meant, and it even scared me.

"I'll only talk to Maquiel about it." He finally said "But now we have better things to do. Maquiel I want you to ask Samus to prepare her suit in order to track a plasma track."

"_Piece of cake._" Samus said to me.

"Spiritual awareness is useless when it comes to track Wolf down; he is hiding Matthew's scent, so we can trace his energy."

"So Maquiel can trace them down." Melanie said hopeful and then a tear came down his eye "Oh my god… we're seeing him…"

Link had to hold Melanie with his arms as she was about to faint. Everyone seemed cheer up and they were expectant to my doing.

"I'm going to revive him." Pit said "As soon as he is alive you gotta do this fast."


	3. Knock Down The Monster

**Knock down the monster**

"We're here." I said at last.

It wasn't a fortress on the desert anymore. The track took us to an unexpected destination. We were on the south this time, on a roofed dome.

It was a maze on the inside, a place with thousands of doors and rooms. Every room was incredible small, this place was made in order to confuse us. My initial guest was that the probably were on a second, third, any other above floor, or even in the basement, this entrance was only to confuse whoever who entered.

5x5 meters of space in every room, no variation, dark blue walls three meters tall, a wooden door that lead only to a room, which had another three doors to make us lost.

Melanie tried to perceive anything, but she was unable to. Something was blocking her sense, which made her anger. I myself tried to detect something with the heat sight that the suit posses, but I didn't get anything.

"We'll have to separate in groups." Ash suggested.

"Melanie, you go with Link." I knew Link would not accept being put with anyone else, so I put them together at first "Ash, go with Lucas and Pikachu." Ash was the one who had the better sense of leadership; it was necessary that he guided Lucas and Pikachu "I and Kirby will take the door in front of us."

Melanie seemed relived to see that I wasn't going by myself and she pretty much accepted to go alone with Link.

We split and I ran forward, just forward, ignoring any other kind of bifurcation. I looked at Kirby and I noticed he made some kind of noise, like if he was talking to me, but I understood nothing from his face. I sighed and continued as he followed my pace. When I got tired from the doors I prepared the Zero Laser and destroyed most of the rooms in front of me as the power suit got destroyed, leaving me on the zero suit.

Kirby jumped and he hit me on the head; I understood he was pissed by my reckless act.

"Don't worry Kirby." I said smiling "Pit trained me well, I still have a lot of energy to go, nothing is going to happen."

He didn't seem confident enough, but my decision turned to be a good one, because not only I was faster now (I had to grab Kirby on my arms and then start running), but we also got to a staircase that lead us to some kind of balcony. There we could see that there was a stadium ahead of the balcony, a training area in fact.

"Wolf might want to power up his comrades." I didn't understand how exactly he would train them, but he was doing so.

Kirby thrust me out of the balcony and I fell on the stadium as someone hit the exact point in which we were. I fell stood up and then I prepared the plasma whip. I stared at the man and then I recognized him. It was Captain Falcon.

"Wolf is a genius, isn't he?"

"He's so smart that he led me here." I reminded him as Kirby and I prepared to fight.

"Do you really think Wolf's here?" he asked conceited "He wouldn't have let Snake go out to fight you without taking prevention."

"Anyway," I said releasing the plasma whip "He led me to you."

"Indeed." He answered "Both of us have an important role to play."

_Role. _That word crossed my mind, remembering the dream I had, Gabriel's words traveled at full speed around my head.

Kirby headed against Captain Falcon. He tried to kick him, but he jumped to avoid the hit and then Kirby attempted to absorb him. He managed to and then he gained Captain's Falcon helmet and he started unleashing Falcon's punch against him, but any of them hit him as he moved fast enough to the right and to the left in order to avoid the powerful punched.

As soon as he kicked Kirby's face I ran forward at high speed and I slashed him with the whip. The plasma whip pierced slightly his skin as he jumped backwards and I just ran forward to start a hand to hand combat, in which I was taking the upper hand. I punched his face and then I kicked his crouch, which had to hurt a lot, but he did not gave up, he took the chance as soon as he bent and he thrust me to the ground as he punched me back on the face. Then, when the second hit was incoming (a Falcon Punch), I stopped his fist by grabbing his arm and then I kicked his waist with might as I took the plasma whip that I left on my hip and I slashed, but the plasma only hit his left knee. He rolled backwards in the air as he landed on the ground meters apart from me. I rubbed my face and then I stared at him. It was hard for him to get up as his knee was hurt, but he didn't seem to care. He stared at me with a boastful face.

"Are you really that confident on your victory?" I asked him tranquil "Look at you; you can barely stand, while I'm on perfect condition."

"You've seen nothing lady." He replied as he erased the smile from his face and his voice became darker "And you have no idea what your life is going to be used for."

"I won't fall on your mind tricks."

"But you are, already…"

Before he could keep talking Kirby kicked his face and then he started to hit his waist countless times. Whatever he wanted to say, Kirby didn't want me to hear it, so I could deduce it was, indeed, an attempt to mess with my mind. Captain Falcon was weaker than what I thought and still he seemed confident enough about his victory, why? He could barely attack me, he couldn't withstand Kirby's melee, then why was he so sure? I stared at him; I had a bad feeling about this. I sharpened my senses and I remained in constant calm until I heard footsteps. They were walking towards here, who was it?

I was ready to run towards the shape that crossed the door, but I froze when I saw the man crossing the door.

"Robert." I whispered.

Captain Falcon stared at him with terror; he wasn't expecting him at all. He was walking at ease, his outfit was completely different from what I recalled, he was wearing only black and white, black jeans, white shirt and black jacket, his face was thinner and mature, and full of a peace; that made me flinch. I saw the same brown hair, and the same deep blue eyes, which were now somewhat cold. Suddenly I felt that something terrible was about to happen.

"Hello Maquiel." He said "It seems I wasn't the only one who came looking for Matthew, was I?"

Kirby was trying to turn Captain Falcon into a trophy, but he had to stop, he noticed Robert's presence and something in him filled his whole being with horror.

"Now, why are you all so scared?" he asked calmed "Is there something wrong with me?"

"You forfeited." I reminded him "You said you were tired of fighting, besides, I though you were abroad!"

"I'm back." He said smiling "But not to help you Maquiel, I'm going to end this."

He only raised his hand and Captain Falcon was suddenly pushed against a wall, he seemed like he was drowning in the air, as he was breathing water, it made no sense.

"Will you tell me where Wolf is?" Robert asked Captain Falcon. My body flinched.

"Wasn't your power telepathy?" Captain Falcon asked weakly as he struggled to breathe.

"What if is not it?" he walked towards Captain Falcon as he laughed "There's no reason to tell you."

I could see how Captain Falcon was struggling to the end and finally… it happened. He burst. My eyes were horrified, the whole body of Captain Falcon had just filled with green aura and then it exploded leaving only Gabriel's father behind, Stephen. He was breathing heavily, scared as hell, he got on his knees before Robert who looked at him with cold eyes.

"Every being is filled with an aura, a soul, and I'm able to manipulate auras, so abstracting the concept, I just blew up Captain's Falcon soul."

My body started to shake and I gulped. I couldn't believe what happened before my eyes, as I couldn't get to process the Robert in front of me… he wasn't the cocky and self righteous man I once knew, he was different… cold, calm. My eyes were burning on terror as he started pressing Stephen's soul.

"This is not like death." He said "I'd say like never being born."

"Robert, stop!" I yelled "He is a human being."

"You disgust me." He said coldly "Thanks to you Gabriel joined your side and you screwed everything up, think this as redemption."

"Robert, NO!"

But it was too late; the man fell on the ground soulless, his eyes were empty and he was breathing, but the nothing in him detected any trace of life. I stared at Robert terrified.

"What the hell did you do?" I asked shaking.

"Maquiel, you can't defeat Matthew." He said calmly "It took me four years, but I can finally see that he is meant to fight me."

"I can't let you do that Robert." I said trying to keep my cool "I won't let him suffer this…"

"Think about it Maquiel, it's like fate," I hated that word, fate, a word Robert had never used before "since we were kid Matthew and I have been fighting each other and taking care of each other. He is now about to do something that we ignore, but it will be a catastrophe, and there's gotta be someone fighting him. It's not going to be you, you are not prepared to kill him if it's necessary, so it's gotta be me."

"Cut the bull crap!" I yelled "You forfeited! You had your chance to help saving the world! So don't come now telling me that you are a hero!"

"I don't owe you an explanation."

"What about Yoshi?" I asked trying to touch a nerve "Have you forgotten about it?"

"I don't need him." He said as coldly as before "In fact, he would get in the way."

"How can you say that?" I ran towards him to punch his face, but he avoided the punch and grabbed my arm "Weren't you the one who cried all over him?"

"Indeed, what I did was awful," he released from my arm as he walked backwards to leave "but this is my redemption."

He left, but not as a man I once knew, but a monster.


	4. Disturbed

**Disturbed**

I noticed that I had a sad gaze on my face, but nobody could detect it as I was wearing the mask. That was one of the things I liked about it; it hid every emotion that could resemblance betrayal or confusion. I surely didn't need to have Wolf picking an eye on me every single minute, but somehow I think I knew that he was aware of my feelings, he just didn't make any move. He never did, after taking on Matthew's body it was like he was awaiting for something. We had no specific location, we could live for a while around Sri Lanka, and some other around South Africa, you'd never know. Nobody was aware of what he was trying to pull or trigger, most of us followed him because of fear, not loyalty. It was only Gabriel and Falco the ones I could glimpse true loyalty behind fear. Wolf was stronger than ever; there was no way that Pit could save the others against this new improved Wolf.

I walked around the white corridor as the air started to feel heavy, I could barely hold my sword right, and the wide corridor suddenly felt smaller, there was something disturbing the area. I stared at the door at the end that guided directly towards Anna's room. I hated her; there was something wrong about her. She went out three days ago to meet Maquiel for who knows what reasons and now she was back on the base, but every time she came back from the outside this bizarre feeling increased, just like if her madness would spread all around us after a period outside.

I opened the door. The room was small because she asked a small one, a stiff and rough bed and no windows, a very dark room that revealed the status of her dark mind.

"Oh, Meta Knight," she said softly "Is it time for checking already?"

"Indeed." I answered "You haven't said a word, nor moved an inch; we have to make sure you are alive."

"How consented of you!" she answered, and her tone gave me the creep. "Tell Wolf I'm fine, and please send Gabriel here, I need to see him."

"I'll see what I can do…"

"Are you prepared?" she asked with an evil glimpse on her eyes "Sonic is there, it won't be as easy at it seems."

"Wolf never put us to do anything unless he has predicted every scenario," I replied "if he is sending me it means I can do it, just as he sent Snake to lure Samus to the fake hide out."

"Poor Stephen," she said with no pity at all "but a soul crush is a good way to go for such a miserable and disturbed person, don't you think? He won't bear hell, he won't bear sins, he just won't exist, and maybe that's true rest."

_I rather go to hell than having my soul crushed. _I couldn't avoid the need of rubbing my body, I was nothing but a ball, but that didn't mean I couldn't die, I had that thinking imprinted on my head every day and then I thought that it was maybe because of the fear that Kirby never acted as he did. But I could never forgive him, leaving me alone with him; he could at least have told me there was another choice… I swore on my Galaxia to strike him down and I would, but I couldn't deny that this side was scaring me and most of I didn't know what we wanted any longer. The world was technically ours if we wanted, it'd take Wolf one day to conquer, but none of us asked for it, as we were scared to die on the crossed fire. So we went for four years, and now I had the feeling that we couldn't delay the Judgment Day any longer, it was going to end bloody and it started with this abduction.

I started walking towards the exit, and I was only stopped by Anna's creepy words.

"Mothers are born to destroy."

I kept walking ignoring her words. She lost her mind; when she first arrived, we were told the truth by Wolf, but we were strictly ordered not to say a word to Gabriel, was it the guilt that made that woman become that crazy? Was it being captive around four years with no more visitors than his son and Wolf? Or was it that she gave such an enormous amount of blood that she would finally lose it? Either way, I didn't like her, and now I could only think about the job that had to be done.

I found Mewtwo past the door.

"Red, Pikachu, Lucario…" he whispered.

"What's up?"

"Oh, nothing." He answered telepathically "I was just thinking out loud. It seems all my friends of the other world happen to be on the other side."

"Same here," I replied "it's been tough, but after all we were betrayed."

"And we'll get our vendetta, at the very least that was what Wolf promised me."

"He never lies," I remembered him, and it was for that reason that I was bounded to him in the first place "you'll get your chance, there's no doubt on it."

"Are you sure about this?"

"What other option is there?" I asked "Chile is millions miles away from here, even if I'd like to escape, I'd get killed before. So, I gotta do my job."

* * *

"It was so scary."

Robert was gone before I could get the chance to talk with him. I felt awful, I couldn't stop him and the corpse of Stephen lied before me, it was hard to watch. I sighed, I was trained to see this every day, Pit warned me that things would get bloody and ugly, but it wasn't the death what bothered me… it was the way, I couldn't understand it, and thus it scared me. I was never trained to treat something like that, and now Robert was a new whole kind of freak for me.

Melanie held my hands as she tried to relax me.

"The good thing is that he is on our side."

"No, he is not," my answered seemed to puzzle Melanie "he said he wasn't going to help me, he is on his way to kill Matthew."

Melanie gulped as she heard about it and then she took a deep breath. She seemed confident.

"We are going to find him first."

"Melanie, I'm not scared for Matthew," at least that wasn't what worried me the most, I knew Matthew was strong enough to withstand Robert's holly powers "I'm worried about him… the last time I saw him, a year ago, he was becoming warmer; don't you remember how he started giving Judo classes? He opened a dojo, he had his own house, and he was building his own place. He, for the first time on his life, was optimistic and nearly happy… this time he seemed soulless, like if his whole old passion had been sucked away. He is no longer the happy Robert he became, nor the arrogant and cool Robert he used to be… he was like…"

I didn't find a word to describe it, I could see beyond the coldness of his eyes, there was something he was seeking, something he was addicted to, but I didn't know what it was. I just shed a tear at the thought, at the image of this whole new Robert that was coming across. I couldn't bear it, it was like my previous friend was brutally killed and replaced for something else.

"Let's get out of here." Ash suggested; he seemed annoyed "There's nothing anywhere."

"We better get going Maquiel," Melanie said "look, we might not have found him, but we got a lead."

She showed me a beam sword. It was Vatra.

"Oh my god." I said while I took it on my hand.

I unleashed the blue blade of light and it brought me a huge feeling of nostalgia, the memories from Matthew fighting with it, protecting us and firing heat waves with it. I knew it was Vatra, I had no doubt, it even had the "M" that Matthew imprinted on the eye with fire, I always wondered if the M was for Mario or Matthew. It could be both.

I felt that I had on my hands the last fragment of Matthew's old essence and I held tight it on my hands, but after some minutes I returned it back to Melanie.

"Can you trace something on it?"

"It's not like I'm a dog, you know?" she complained while taking a look on it "But I can give it a shoot."

She took the beam sword off my hands and I got up. Kirby didn't seem upset as I was, in fact he seemed like he was enjoying the atmosphere. I couldn't really tell, but something in his face was seriously wrong for me, I couldn't really stand it and I had to look away. Also I'd have a word or two with Pit; I knew he had to hold on to some information about Robert's true ability.

"Wait a minute." Melanie said looking at her surrounding "Where's Kirby?"

He was nowhere to be seen. We took half an hour to look for him around the dome maze, but there was really no trace of him, could it be Pit taking him?

"He'd be fine." I declared "Kirby is not reckless; he won't get in troubles that easily."

Everyone nodded as we headed for the exit.

We got out of the whole maze and we left the doom. There was a ban for us waiting at the outside, and I entered on the driver seat. I sighed as tear shed down my face, but I immediately cleaned it and I looked forward with a big smile as I took a look on Melanie who was at my side.

"There's a chance we'll find him first, isn't it?"

"Positive," she replied optimistically "we will definitely find him this time."

"Good, I've wanted to say that brat that…"

My phrase was interrupted; a blast of energy fell beside the ban. I lost control for some seconds until I managed to make it stop. Melanie and I looked at each other and we got off the ban, and so the smashers did. I could see a landmaster attacking us.

"Gabriel?" I asked.

The landmaster disappeared and as I supposed, it was Gabriel who was in front of us. My eyes stared at him, and I remembered the last time we saw, the day of his confession.

"Long time no see, Maquiel, Melanie, smashers." He said cheerfully as he walked towards us "How are you doing?"

_Gabriel is dead. _I remembered those words from my dream and it gave me the creep. I took a step forward.

"Is it you Gabriel?" I asked. My question seemed to puzzle everyone.

"Of course I am." He answered and I felt a breeze of relief "Who else could I be?"

I felt like hugging him, somewhere deep in my heart I was truly scared that he was dead, and even though he was with the enemy I couldn't avoid to feel happiness to see him fine.

Melanie looked at him suspicious, as the smashers took fighting stances.

"Link, behind you!"

Melanie's yell made me turn and just as she said, there was someone who was aiming to split Link's body in two with the swim of a sword, but he stopped it right away.

"Marth?" Link asked surprised as he blocked the sword.

"Didn't see this coming?" Marth asked as they held a sword combat. Link brandished the sword in a straight line, but Marth bent and then he kicked Link who stepped backwards. Ash was about to start helping him, but as soon as his hand was about to release a Pokemon, someone stopped him. Pikachu looked at the shade puzzled, it was Mewtwo.

Lucas got intercepted by Ness who looked at him pissed.

Melanie and I shape shifted and we stared at Gabriel.

"What's with the welcome committee?" I asked "You took with you some smashers that seem to be related with our allies."

"Why don't you force the answer out of me?"

"Where is Matthew?" I asked as my eyes started burning "I followed a trace of energy to here, is he anywhere near by?"

He remained in silence, he was expecting us to attack first, but I wouldn't lose it, the first who loses patience is the most likely to lose.

"Your father is dead."

I didn't see the big smile on Gabriel's face coming, it was almost a sadistic one and it gave both Melanie and I the creep. I knew he never loved his father, but that face was so full of hatred and joy that I couldn't avoid feeling a little bit sick.

"Finally we got rid of him!" He said cheerfully "You can not imagine Maquiel, how much time everyone waited for this!"

"He was your ally."

"Everybody despised him!" he replied "We needed him for a bit, but not anymore, that's why Wolf fixed your meeting."

"What?"

"You finished him of, didn't you?" his face was so bright, he even shed tears. I didn't like how happy he was about someone's death; it was too creepy "You really grew stronger, didn't you? You grew enough to withstand his final smash and final form!"

"Gabriel…" I couldn't find the words, I didn't know how to explain or how to ask, but I felt so cold by thinking that Matthew would kill one of his companions.

I looked at Melanie and she was as confused as me. I could detect a glimpse of the twilight coming through the mountains that decorated the road on a green land around concrete and it seemed that last speck of light that came from the sun set was setting on Gabriel's excited and happy face.

He came towards me, but he didn't attack, he… he hugged me.

"I'm so grateful Maquiel," he said as he started crying "you lifted such a burden on me, you freed us from so much suffering…"

I didn't know how to react, neither did Melanie. The smashers were not aware of the scene here; they kept fighting on an intense battle.

The words were not coming from my mouth, so I could only see how Link managed to swing his sword and make a little cut on Marth's cheek. It was his first wound, but Link was quite cut around his body and he seemed exhausted. Marth drew an horizontal upward line with his sword and he managed to hit Link's chin, but Link threw a bomb that forced Marth to jump backwards and then he prepared his bow in no time to shoot an arrow that passed next to Marth's waist. After the arrow passed next to his waist he made a quick draw and he trapped Link in a swing that was too fast for him to block and another wound was open around his knee, it was difficult for him to move now. Link stared at Marth angrily; they had some kind of unsolved issue. And so I could detect on Mewtwo who was rejecting Pikachu's and Charizard's attack with his psychic and Ness how was beating the hell up on Lucas with his PK powers. Lucas was trapped on Ness PK pross, and Mewtwo thrust Pikachu, Charizard and Ash to the ground with psychic. Link was barely able to move; he fell backwards when he blocked Marth's last attack and he pointed his sword to his neck.

Only after seeing all this I felt that Gabriel was breaking the hug, his face was full of emotion, a so sincere gratitude that made me flinch. Melanie was as paralyzed as me due to the confusion.

"Back on the old days I was never sure why I felt attracted to you, but I think I can see it now."

"Ok Gabriel, stop!" I commanded as he stepped backwards "I don't know what you are getting at, but you are either on our side or in Wolf's side, so make up your mind please!"

"And choose us!" Melanie added as a tear shed around his delicate cheek "We destroyed your burden! We freed you! You can go home now, we can rescue your mother and protect her, we can grant her safety with Pit and we would have a friend back."

I could notice how her voice was breaking as she shape shifted back to her human for, her face was completely torn apart, she was so full on hope that she didn't feel like she needed to remain in Zelda's form. She walked towards Gabriel.

"Please." She asked.

Gabriel's face was now darker and seemed to be filled on angst and sadness.

"There's only a way for me to be allowed to be back."

"What?" I asked as I stepped forwards, something was going wrong.

"I'm sorry Melanie, but if I want to ever leave Wolf's side…" I ran forward.

Melanie was about to get hit with Gabriel's road, but I managed to cover her with my power suit and my whole back and legs were frozen, protecting Melanie from the frozen hell.

"My only way is to kill you."

I tried to break free from the ice, but it was like trying to break a glacier, it wasn't impossible for me, but it was hard. I finally broke through the ice by swinging my left arm and then I ran towards Gabriel, who jumped backward.

"I don't want to fight you Maquiel!" he said "It's better if we don't."

"You tried to kill Melanie!" I replied angrily "Do you think I'm going to stand by?"

"Why are you fighting us that much?" he asked "You want to see Matthew, don't you? He wants that too! Why don't you join us? The fight would be over! Melanie and you would have the chance to see Matthew every time you wanted, the smashers would be assure, your families too."

"I won't sell my soul for what I seek." I replied "That's why we are different Gabriel, you embraced yourself to darkness."

"Darkness?" He asked laughing "Snap out of it Maquiel! This isn't a fight between light and darkness! This is a fight about two different points of view, and you are losing it!"

"The battle has just begun!" I shouted.

"That's not what I meant," he said "you have a role to play, and you will abide it at the end, following Wolf's desire."

_Those words! _I felt frozen solid again, my body was numb, and Melanie was barely able to react at all. I stared at Gabriel and I remembered my dream. Gabriel smiled.

"Do you want to see Matthew?" he asked "Consider this a favor for killing my father. We'll meet on Saint Cleat graveyard, two weeks from now on before the sun set. Be sure to bring as much reinforcement as you want, things might get pretty badly."

"Where's that graveyard?" I asked.

"On Valdivia."

He threw the name of the city and then he called the landmaster. His companions left our defeated smashers and hopped on the landmaster. I hugged Melanie as the landmaster took off and I thought that even if it was a trap, I'd be there.


	5. Eagle Without Wings: Desertores

**Eagle without wings [Desertores]**

"It's evident that's a trap!" Ash pointed, he seemed offended by my decision of going there "Do you really want to fall in such an obvious trap?"

"I don't care," I said with burning passion on my eyes. I parked the ban outside of Melanie's house, it was a long trip finally reaching its end and I finally felt a little bit relaxed by being at home "if you don't want to go, then don't."

"That's right, I won't."

Link seemed to get pissed at Ash; as soon as we got off the ban he punched him. Lucas and Pikachu seemed to be now angry at Link.

"We chose a side," Link reminded Ash "and we got to stay with the leader."

"If I remember correctly, Matthew was the original leader."

That comment not only made us all freeze and flinch, but it also hurt me a lot.

"We've been able to do nothing!" He complained "Four years of training so they could still keep kicking our asses! You and Melanie are the only ones who grew stronger, but we are stuck! And now we are going to fall on a trap! Do you want us to die? Use your brains!"

"Ash, calm down." Lucas asked.

"How can I? If we want to have a chance we must act through intelligence, but our great "leader" is nothing but an obsessed girl on his enemy! She acts based on emotion, not reason! That's how we lost Matthew in the first place."

I didn't doubt, I punched him pretty hard. I didn't contain most of my strength and I could feel how I broke some of his ribs, he even coughed blood.

"Maquiel!" Melanie shouted as she ran towards me.

Before she could stop me, I thrust Ash to the ground and I buried his head on the earth. Melanie grabbed my arms to stop me from keeping punching him, and it was just because I didn't want to harm her that I didn't move. Link and Lucas removed Ash from the ground who spit mud.

"See?" he asked weakly as she stared at me "You can't even contain your anger."

I glared at him as I tried to calm down; I couldn't believe his words, I didn't expect to be betrayed for comrades that been around us for four years. My eyes burnt on anger, but I was starting to relax, my arms ceased struggling and I took a deep breath. Melanie let me fell on my knees and I got up almost immediately. Both Ash and I were glaring at each other, neither of us ready to apologize.

"I need as much help as I can." I said "But that doesn't mean that if nobody goes I won't. You might not understand it, but one way or another I have to see him; even a glimpse would be fine. I love him, but of course you don't know what love is, do you?"

His eyes were now turning slightly darker as his face was showing a desire to fight, but he contained his anger.

"I'm done."

His words made everybody flinch. Lucas and Pikachu seemed really puzzled.

"Ash, please don't." Lucas said almost crying.

"I'm done with this crap!" Ash finally said "FYI, I know what love is Maquiel!" he replied angrily as he stared back to his comrades "Aren't you tired of fighting our comrades? Aren't you tired of fighting those who you once loved? I had to fight Mewtwo twice! Who knows when I'll have to face Lucario too!" he then stared at Link "Wasn't Snake one of your best friend back in our world? Is it ok for you to leave him as a trophy? And what about you?" his eyes were posed on me "Isn't Samus hurt to see his beloved Snake liked this?"

If she was, she was hiding it. She barely talked to me, her nature was a silent one and she only spoke to me when I needed her, I never knew anything about her.

Ash eyes were cold, as he seemed to have taken a choice.

"Link, I promised I'd help if you rescued Pikachu. You did, I'm grateful for that. I know humans are not the enemies any more, but I just can't keep this on. I'm going to leave and live on my own."

"Please, Ash, don't!" Melanie cried as she ran forward to grab his arm "We can't lose anyone else!"

"It's not about you." He said calmly as his eyes burnt with rage towards me "It's about her."

He just released from Melanie's arm and he walked towards nowhere to be found. I saw him as my chest hurt, I was being left again.

Lucas gulped and he stepped forward, and so did Pikachu. Lucas eyes started to weep.

"I'm sorry, but I can't leave Ash. We'll get him back… eventually, I promise."

But they wouldn't, I knew it; he was already far from us. It was obvious, all these years not commenting how it felt to hurt his companions, to fight them on the subspace and afterwards, he just kept it inside and now he exploded. I never gave it a thought, fighting their comrades for such a long time, they never told me how it was like. I didn't even understand why Link was around us anymore. But it didn't matter, we were more lonely than ever.

I fell on my knees, as Melanie crouched to make eye contact.

"What were you thinking?" She asked me in a severe tone "You went too far."

"It's not like I'm proud of myself Melanie, but… what he said…"

"I understand, it hurt me too," she said calmly "but we must not lose our cool, otherwise we will mostly be defeated on battle."

"Listen to her Maquiel," I recognized that voice at the double "that's what I taught you."

Pit appeared out of nowhere with Kirby at his side. He seemed both serious and happy, a strange mixture of expressions. Kirby was the same as always, I couldn't read through his expressions. Pit sat on the grass and we did the same thing.

"It's not good for us to lose comrades."

"I don't feel like talking about it."

"What about the address?" Pit said relaxed "It seems the trip wasn't a total waste of time after all."

The trip… there I met this new bizarre Robert and his… new powers. What did happen to him? How could someone have such a dramatic change?

"I've been meaning to ask you about something…" I said.

"About Robert's powers?"

"How on earth did you know?" I asked suspicious.

"He's not your ally, that's true," his words made me stare at him, how did he know so many things? He wasn't even there! "but it might be helpful in the out coming battle."

"He wants to kill Matthew!"

"You saw what happened with Captain Falcon, he can destroy Wolf." He said coldly "His ability might prove to be useful."

"Why was he so cold?" I asked as I reached his neck, ready to squeeze "I got enough of your Yoda way to talk, let's go straight for it. How do you know about his powers? And why has he suddenly changed his mind?"

Pit sighed; he seemed to be disappointed on me.

"Is it going to change anything? What good is on knowing the truth about it?"

I got furious, my fists closed as I stared with hatred at Pit. Melanie looked at me with horror, she was scared that the way Pit avoided the truth meant something terrible. Link closed a fist out of anger. Pit on the other side seemed tranquil.

"Robert wants revenge" he answered "what for? I don't know myself."

"You piece of liar."

"Matthew did something to him, that's for sure; otherwise he would never have come to me."

My eyes opened wide… why? Why would Robert's first option would be Pit? Why not me? My teeth chattered on rage as I waited for a real answer.

"You are too impulsive Maquiel," Pit said "You are not going to win by yourself, so I had to recruit people too. Not just Robert, but he sure is a key piece."

"What have you done to Robert?" I asked as my hand reached his neck. I was almost about to break his neck "Who turned him into such a monster?"

"It was his choice." He said. "He decided to fight again."

"Then why didn't he come back for Yoshi!"

The answer was too obvious for Pit to answer. Melanie seemed about to shed tears and a depressive gaze was held in everybody's face. I was looking around as my question was self answered. It was pride, shame and guilt. Robert wasn't able to forgive himself yet, not even after all these years, and somewhere he still loved Yoshi and wanted him to be out of the war, even if he had to become the ice cold monster we saw. My eyes suddenly turned sad, they were looking at the grass of the garden. I released my hand from Pit's neck and I used it to punch the ground with might. A hole was dug in a matter of seconds due to my fist punch and I was suddenly too sad, I wanted to somehow repair that relationship.

Pit suddenly touched my shoulders and I raised my head.

"Can you fight?"

"I can." I replied automatically.

"What about you Melanie? Are you fine?"

"Yes. Why the question so sudden?"

"They've come."

For an instance I felt an enormous wave of excitement, but it wasn't Matthew the one who was about to land on my position. I jumped to the right as I saw Bowser falling on the middle of the garden. He roared and then he looked at me.

"Long time no see Maquiel."

"Bowser!" I shouted as I shape shifted.

Melanie followed my step and she shape shifted too. Link drew his sword as fast as he could. Pit looked at me puzzled, but he took Kirby on his arm and then he suddenly was releasing his wings.

"Take care of him."

Pit didn't only teleported him out of the battle, but he also teleported us to a proper battlefield. It was an empty soccer field. I was wondering why didn't he helped us, but there wasn't that much of a time to wonder, after all Bowser was heading towards me with an unnatural speed for his size. He was faster and his claws seemed to be sharpened. I managed to avoid every attack though, with perfect timing, until I managed to shoot a missile and send him backwards. At the same moment he landed on the ground Melanie attacked with Din's fire, but Bowser was able to dodge the implosion from it with a flip jump. He stopped and Link was holding his sword around his neck. There was a second to ask.

"What are you doing?" I asked "Weren't you going towards Wolf?"

He kicked Link out of his way and he prepared to battle.

"Is it usual to you to talk to the enemy while fighting?" He asked as he rushed towards me. "I'm testing my strength!"

I jumped and flip on the air in order to avoid the tackle, and in mid air I shoot a weak, but an effective, charged shoot. The energy blast made Bowser flinch for a second and then I headed towards him in order to repeat a sequence of punches that were hitting his face. He was stepping backwards, but he didn't seem really affected at all. I gave one last hard hit on his chest and then I jumped backwards. Bowser was recovering his air when Link shot an arrow that passed next to his horn. Melanie rushed towards Bowser and she used Naryuu's love to trap him in the blue diamond. He was sent backwards once again almost touching the port goal. I jumped towards him as I tried to land a hard hit on his face, but he rolled. Once I got up, I talked.

"Is that all?" I asked somewhat bored, somewhat concerned. I had my worst nightmares avoiding Pit's attack; this battle was too easy "What do you want to prove?"

"I will kill Wolf!" He stated "And I will kill you too, your role must not be fulfilled!"

"What role?" I asked pissed "TELL ME ALREADY WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON!"

"_Maquiel, keep your cool!" _Samus commanded "_You can't let him get to you._"

"I'm tired of it!" I shouted.

"Maquiel?" Melanie asked.

"Everybody is saying that I'm going to fulfill a fate… spit it out Bowser! What destiny am I fulfilling?"

Bowser seemed to be pleased with my reaction; his face was filled with a big dark smile.

"So the angel boy hasn't told you yet." Bowser said "Maybe its better that way."

I was too tired of it, tired of hearing that I was being lead by some kind of fate, I pointed my cannon towards Bowser and with rage I prepared the Zero Laser.

"_Maquiel, calm down!" _Samus tried to keep me cool, but it was impossible "_You are playing his game!_"

But I didn't listen to Samus; I was just too focused on shooting him.

"Zero Laser."

The beam blast was unleashed and it headed towards Bowser at high speed. He had no chance to avoid it. The power suit was destroyed and I was left on the Zero Suit waiting to see Bowser's trophy. But that wasn't coming along; what I saw, what everyone saw, was a skeleton Bowser. Dry Bowser.

"You are the first ones to see me at my final form." He said with dark tone "What? Don't you understand? Everyone has a final form! Just like when Matthew turned into Fire Mario."

_So that's a final form! Something beyond the final smash… _I stared at Dry Bowser and I prepared to brawl, but he was ridiculously fast and he was next to me in a matter of seconds. I wasn't able to block his attack and he punched me on the chest. For an instance I thought my heart would stop beating as a stream of blood came out from my mouth and I was pushed against a wall.

"Maquiel!" Melanie shouted as she tried to oppose between Dry Bowser and me.

"Get out of the way, Melanie!" I replied.

But it was too late. Link tried his best to protect her with his body, but Bowser brandished his own bones as a steel sword and he cut through their skin. Link was bleeding around his waist and Melanie shape shifted back to her human form. Then Bowser took that chance to smack her face on the floor.

"MELANIE!" I shouted as I stood up to fight back.

It was futile, Dry Bowser was rushing towards me and I was barely able to dodge. I was getting accustomed to his speed, but it was hard for me to block, I could only avoid his arms attack, which were now like steel blades ready to cut through me. Despite it was hard, I found a split second chance to stop both arms with my plasma whip. Dry Bowser seemed puzzled.

"What?" I asked pissed as I released yellow aura "Did you really think I was done for?

I lost no time and I unleashed my final smash again, but this time I trapped Dry Bowser on a high volt wave as I reequipped my Power Suit. I wasn't totally exhausted, but I was tired, it cheered me up seeing that my attack was effective and Dry Bowser received some damage. His red eyes stared on me.

"I wasn't expecting less." He said "Your old self would have never stood a chance."

"Don't underestimate me!" I said while I tried to take a deep breath, I was dizzy and it was hard to keep standing, but I pointed my cannon towards him anyway.

He rushed towards me and he started hitting my hand with his skeleton fists. He broke through the helmet and he reached my face. Those were hard punches, it felt like my face was about to get broken as a watermelon, but I managed to point the cannon towards his head and once again I shoot the Zero Laser as the parts of my Power Suit scattered all around the field. Dry Bowser was thrust upwards and backwards as I shape shifted back to my human self. I had troubles at breathing, and my body didn't want to obey me, but I managed to stand and I closed a fist as I stared at Dry Bowser. My eyes were burning, I wanted to finish him, I didn't want to be rescued, I wanted to prove myself that I could defeat him and Wolf too. Dry Bowser seemed at least to be somewhat weakened by the Zero Laser. He was blinded now and he also had troubles at breathing. I ran towards him and I shouted a war cry with all my might as my fist hit his bones. The whole bones were scattered around the field. I took a deep breath as I looked around a little bit calmer now.

"I…"

But I couldn't finish the sentence; Dry Bowser was joining his scattered bones all over and reconstructing himself. My eyes stared at the giant skeleton turtle in front of me with something I've never feel before. It wasn't fear; it was both impotence and terror, at the same time. I didn't know what to do.

"You gave me quite a fight little girl." He said as he tried to detect where I was with his blinded sight "But this ends here."

I was almost certain that my death was incoming, but something stopped Dry Bowser. It was Ike's hand that came from nowhere.

"Bowser." He said "Are you stupid or what? This girl will lead us to Matthew?"

"I wasn't going to really kill her!" he complained "I was just testing her."

Ike gave me a creepy look.

"She withstood you even with no final form."

"For a bit, yeah."

"Scary though" he said as Bowser returned to his normal self "well, today's your lucky day girl. You'll be leading us to Matthew, won't you?"

I wasn't able to talk; they just left as my body felt completely numb. I understood what Pit meant when I started the training; I can only teach you how to survive. I did, I might be even able to escape, but I wasn't able to fight back. I hit the floor as I fainted.


	6. Black & White 4, The unbreakable

_**Author Note: **__After a good while with his narration absent of the story, he's back! Matthew POV chapter. Enjoy and review!_

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**Black & White 4, The unbreakable**

I was all by myself around the graves. The two weeks passed smoothly as I waited for the company, for the old friends to show up. It was sad that they had to meet me like this, wearing Wolf's outfit, imposing myself as the enemy. Now I understood why Wolf enjoyed so much tobacco, it was great at the times when you need to kill time, time that makes nothing, but bother.

If what Gabriel said was true and Maquiel did defeat Captain Falcon, she would be stronger and maybe I would fight her. It was hard for me to think about it, I was never able to forget about her, but it didn't change the fact that I never felt that much in freedom as now. There was nothing ruling above me, no fate, no responsibilities, I couldn't think on leaving Wolf's side. Ever since I became his host body, I didn't just feel in power, but also relaxed and free. He was the one taking decisions and I didn't feel like questioning them, I knew that for reason they were for my best, something inside me, like a protection instinct left him take all the decisions, but not this time. This time it had to be me the one meeting Maquiel and Melanie. I wanted to see them both, even if it meant fighting.

I heard some footsteps, but it wasn't Maquiel.

"Long time no see Robert."

He was dressed up like death, covered in a whole outfit of black and darkness, the only thing that was missing on his outfit was a scythe, but I could see it anyway, he brought it with him a whole juice of aura power to work as a scythe.

"Yeah, it's been." He answered. He seemed like stepping towards me, but he kept a distance of three meters "I had a good life until you messed with me."

"You have something to do Robert, was I going to let you stand by?"

He wasn't impulsive, neither reckless anymore; he kept completely cold, almost emotionless.

"How much blood did you drink from Lucario?"

"Quite enough."

"So now you are one of Pit's puppets. It's rare that you won't be joining Maquiel-"

"She'd never let me do this, so I have to go on my way. Isn't it like a bad joke? Since we were young we always cared for each other as brothers, but we always fought each others as rivals. Now it came the day when those two brothers would fight to dead."

"It's a bad joke indeed." I replied. I didn't like it.

"Can I ask you two questions?"

"Go ahead."

"How is it?" he asked "The stimulation."

"Far greater than what you've ever imagine."

"Have you killed any smashers yet?" he asked puzzled, I knew what he meant.

"As far as I know Yoshi is fine, Salaric is been taking care of him."

Robert seemed to be now tranquil; he still cared a lot about Yoshi, and I couldn't blame him. When Mario died, something died on me too, that's why I ended saying yes to Wolf.

We heard the sound of a crow flying around the grave stones and the whole area was already going to burn on a hell. Robert started concentrating.

But before the battle started, they came.

"Am I interrupting something?"

The nostalgia was really harmful to me; my heart gave a fast beat when I looked at her. I could barely recognize her; her hair was no longer short and spiky, but long and straight, shining with the sun, her face was thinner. I could detect a gaze of pain on her eyes when she saw me like this. At her back was Melanie, who was no longer a child, but a full fledged teenager. I wanted to go and hug both of them, but I couldn't, I had to remain on my cool or Wolf would take over. I needed this chance to talk to them.

"Matthew…" Maquiel said with a broken voice.

I stopped the flow of aura that was heading around me. Robert wanted to end this quickly, but before he could reach Wolf's soul I sent him backwards with telekinesis breaking his control around aura. I held him tight; he was waiting for a chance to break through the invisible hand. I looked at Maquiel how came towards me puzzled, amazed, happy and scared at the same time. She came only with Melanie and Link. I wasn't expecting for Pit to show up, and it made things easier.

"At last." Maquiel said "I've been looking for you, all these years. And here you are, in front of me."

I could see how his face was struggling, she wanted to kiss me and so did I, she wanted to hug me, to feel me, but neither of us could, the both of us were stopped by our minds.

Melanie was about to break and hug me, but she contained; she only stared at me trying to hold a weak serious face. I missed her too much. She stepped forwards.

"I finally understood it Wolf." I was surprised that she wasn't talking to me, but Wolf "I'll talk to you later Matthew, but I need to say this to Wolf."

"He's listening."

"I know why you feared me." I suddenly felt how Wolf was scratching to take the control of my body, something on Melanie's words made him fear "I'm alike you now."

I didn't need to hold Robert anymore, he was also paralyzed by Melanie's word, Maquiel flinched and I felt the urge to let Wolf take over, but I had to contain him, it was my only chance to see them.

"I always felt Matthew as my father. He always took care of me. When I lost him I felt that there was nothing more important than following what he bestowed me. I thought that I had to do what would make him happy, and for an instance I considered giving up on him and going on with my life. Then I understood that all what you did couldn't be only because of angst, you went so far…" I felt a huge headache; I had to hold my face with my right hand. "you had to feel like that for someone. Wolf, who bestowed you this? You don't know what to do anymore, because your mission wasn't to cause war, but to get Matthew! And now that you accomplished it, you don't know how to keep going! That's why we haven't seen you in ages! And you feared me because you knew I was alike you, because you knew that I'd eventually understand it and make Matthew go away from you. That's the reason why you said I was a burden to you four years ago!"

I couldn't control my arms. Luckily Link grabbed Melanie and jumped backwards before my claws slashed her.

"I'm sorry." I said "It's hard to contain Wolf. It seems you touched a nerve."

I could feel how Wolf was trying to take control of me so I could ignore Melanie's words, he was afraid that she could knew something else that might separate us, but I knew there was nothing, my choice was already made. I contained Wolf at least and then I felt Maquiel's punch on my face. I was sent backwards and then I felt how Robert trapped my body around his arms and tried to get through Wolf's soul, but my body started burning and I forced him to jump backwards. Then he took out of his jacket a beam sword and she shoot a green aura wave that I destroyed with my claws, but that was pure diversion so that he could concentrate and grasp my soul. As soon as he did, I sent him against a grave stone with telekinesis, breaking his focus and I headed towards him to make a final slash with my claws that would finish him, but he bent in perfect timing and he tried to pierce my chest with his sword. I jumped backwards and he stood up so he could start a sword combat. My claws could stop the blue light blade with no trouble, but I didn't see coming Robert's kick in my hips and I was thrust backwards. Then Maquiel punched me on the face as I was recovering and she sent me to the ground, but she didn't stop, as soon as she saw Robert about to use his ability she punched him too breaking his focus. Robert stood up and he saw Maquiel puzzled.

"What are you doing?" he asked pissed.

"I'm not letting you do it!"

"Try to stop me!"

I could see how Robert was using his aura power to leave Maquiel breathless. She was unable to move or shape shift, she was trying hard to breath and then I could see how Robert stored as much power as he could and his eyes suddenly became pure blue, the whole globe was burning in blue aura and his hand started burning in it too as he tried to destroy my soul. It was a massive amount of power, but I could counter it with might. My body burnt in black flames that covered me and were extinguished every second, but they didn't stop coming. Robert was destroying those fragments of my soul, fragments that could be easily replaced. Robert was strong, his power didn't seem to cease, but mine neither and then Robert finally was left out of juice. I could see how Melanie finally broke out of Link's arm and she ran towards me. It was Wolf the one who slashed my right arm in order to pierce her skin with his claws, but luckily Melanie was agile and she managed to flip in time to avoid the attack.

"Don't get any near of me!" I ordered "Wolf will try to kill you!"

_I can try avoiding it_. That was the promise he made to me, he never said he wouldn't eventually do it. I stared at Melanie's eyes with sorrow and I left a lone tear fall as Robert made his best standing still.

"We're alike, aren't we?" he asked exhausted "We both agreed to help Wolf; we both left our smasher rotten… Wolf always feared me, because I was so alike you that I might get you see the other way around. Even now it seems he fears that my power can destroy your bond."

I just raised my hand and I thrust him towards a grave with might. He hit his head and fainted. Maquiel was starting to walk forwards.

"Well, now that Robert is out of play, maybe we can talk." She said, and despite her words seemed relaxed she never got her guard down.

"I missed you." I said.

"Me too," she replied with a sorrow gaze and sad voice "more than what you could ever imagine."

Her smile was too broken for my like; she used to be so perky, so cheerful and full of life. Now I was staring at a woman who stood great suffering and despair in order to get to this moment. Her lips were shaking, struggling not to join with mines. We both knew that we loved each other, but it was too late now. The time when the words would matter passed by four years ago, and it was meaningless to say it, we both knew it, it was on our eyes, in our movements, on our voices. Every cell of our body, every fiber of our hearts lust for each other, and yet there we were staring at each other as enemies.

"I came to get you back." She said.

"You can't."

"I have thousands of reasons why you should come back." She said while stepping towards me slowly, only a tiny narrow imaginary line divided us "To take care of Melanie, to help us saving as many people as we possible can… but in the end there is only one that really matters… and it's that you belong with me."

"I belong here." I said firmly "My whole life I felt out of place, taking care of everything, I never had any freedom at all. Now it's different, I'm finally free from fate strings."

"No, you aren't." she seemed to smile "You are trapped on Wolf's strings, you only chose that because you felt guilt, didn't you? But Mario didn't die."

"You'll be waiting for him to awake, but he will never do."

"You'll see," she finally said "because I'm going to take you even by force."

"Are you willing to fight me?" I asked "You don't hold a chance."

"Maybe… but I don't care."

I knew it was going to end this way. Link drew his sword and both Melanie and Maquiel shape shifted at exactly the same time. It was nostalgic to see Maquiel in Samus shape and Melanie in Zelda's form; it was bringing me memories from the old days especially that one in which Maquiel cheered me up on the subspace. Back then I started to realize my feelings towards her.

I shape shifted too and I became Wolf. It was probably the worst thing to see for Melanie and Maquiel, they probably felt it was wrong, that I should have turned into Mario, but this was who I was now. A man freed from his angst and rage.

"Come." I said.

Melanie was the first to give in; the lack of experience was evident on her, too young and impatient. She came towards me in order to slap me, but I grabbed her wrist and then I threw her some feet backwards. As she was recovering in the air, Maquiel headed towards me in order to start a hand to hand combat. I was pleased to see how skilled she became, her fists stopped whenever my arms seemed to be about to grab her wrist and she called it back to raise her leg in order to kick. Her left leg kicked my waist with might, but I trapped it right away and I drew the blaster out to shoot directly on Maquiel's face. She bent on perfect timing, her hand landed on the grass and with her left leg she kicked my face and flipped backwards, while preparing a missile to launch towards me. I dodged it, and then I realized that it was a diversion in order to get Link to head shoot me with an arrow, but it was pointless, they forgot that I had a reflector and the arrow was sent backwards to Link who needed to jump to the left in order to avoid, while the reflector dissipated, Melanie found a split second chance to hit me, but I was too fast to leave her that chance, and in less than a second I was at her back making her hit the ground.

Link didn't wait to see what I would do next to her, he ran towards me and started slashing his sword in straights lines, upwards, downwards, to the right, to the left, but all those strikes were too slow, seeing the patron on his movements was too easy, and it was just a matter of extending my claws to reach his face. His cheek was cut due to my claws, he jumped backwards and I moved at high speed in order to also cut the surface of his knee, a non lethal wound, but that would make him hard to move.

"_Will you be toying with them the entire day?_" Wolf asked impatient.

"I have no intentions to kill them." I replied.

I kicked Link on his back and he fell on the ground as Maquiel appeared out of the sky to hit my face. I dodged it, but she didn't give up, she ran towards me, but she was shooting missiles and charged shots all around the field with no direction at all, what was she aiming? I wasn't sure, but none of her fire ammo hit me, but she headed towards me in order to point her cannon towards my waist. I stopped her with telekinesis and I sent her backward. Then I realized that she was moving her fingers in an odd patron, and I figured that the whole missiles and charged shots were heading around the air towards me, they were controlled to flip on the air and follow me. I activated the reflector right away and as soon as it faded, Maquiel found the split second chance to shoot the Zero Laser. There was no way to avoid it or to activate the reflectors, so I could only get the brunt of it. I extended my hands towards the beam blast and I stopped it one inch before it made contact and used a lot of telekinetic power in order to stop it. The blast dissipated and the next attack took me by surprised. I was expecting to see either Melanie or Maquiel in her Zero Suit, but it was Maquiel in her human form. She ran towards me with great speed and she hit my waist, probably expecting to leave me unconscious. The hit was, indeed, surprisingly strong, a strength that would have easily destroyed the inners organs of any normal human body, but my body wasn't normal; it did nothing, but hurt. She assumed I was knocked out and she took me on her shoulder.

"What now?" Melanie asked.

"Let's take him back home and ask Pit if he can do something to separate them."

"Do you think we can trust him? He left us with Bowser and we almost died back there."

"I know, but we have no other choice."

They were about to take me, when I just released a huge amount of pressure amount them. The telekinesis sent Melanie and Link at least some miles away, while a circle of black flames was drew around Maquiel and me, covering ten meters square. I grabbed her shoulders and jumped backwards while I shape shifted to my human self. Maquiel seemed rather calmed; I expected that she would be surprised, but her eyes were accustomed to this kind of event, surely Pit trained her to be ready for everything.

"Sorry, I told you that it was futile."

"The battle has just started."

It was hard to me to do this, but I had no choice. I used my telekinesis in order to thrust her to the ground and a mass of black fire was covering the air she breathed, almost touching her face.

"What can you do? Can you even move?"

She could barely, she was struggling and she was strong, she would manage eventually to break through and escape the fire. Pit taught her how to survive, but Maquiel wasn't strong enough to beat me, but she was the only one who could survive against me in a full fledge battle. That's why Pit chose her, because the only one who had the slightly chance to beat me was her, the only human being who could survive. I dissipated the fire and I released her body from the telekinetic pressure. She seemed a little bit shocked, but she stood up and she looked at me with a mixture of fear and determination.

"You just don't give up." I finally said "Just like I never did back then."

"I've been looking towards this meeting for so long." She said "I won't walk off now."

"Maquiel, if you keep pursuing to have me back something awful is going to happen! To you, to Melanie, to Robert! Just give up! You can't change anything!"

"You gave up and look what happened! Your mom, your sister, me, you left us all! We all loved you, we all looked up to you, and I wanted to be strong as you! At least…" Maquiel eyes could not hold any more the grudge hidden in her chest "At least tell me why you did it!"

"Wolf is my dad."

It wasn't the whole explanation, and in fact he wasn't, he only held my father's feelings, but it was the only thing that would make her understand. Her eyes looked at me puzzled, confused, as the understanding was becoming darker to her.

"Are you telling me that your father… the one, who wrote down the diary to fight off these guys, actually wanted you to join the enemy?"

"It's more complicated than that…"

"I can understand now." She didn't let me finish "I can understand why you did it… but it isn't the right way to go! Are you a little soldier that would do whatever his father says?"

"Yes."

"Even if he's wrong?"

"He is not."

"He is!" She was too headstrong "He kills people! He killed both Peach and Mario!"

"I thought you said Mario wasn't dead."

"You know what I mean."

I walked towards her and I grabbed her arm. I thrust her towards me and I… I didn't know what to do, I wanted to hit her in order to make her understand, but having her so near of me made me realize that I couldn't possible hurt her like that, I was unable myself to truly fight her, that was why Wolf always took command of my body, because every cell of my body was unable to hurt her. I loved her too much.

"Every single step you take" I finally said "leads you to become a puppet. If you keep this up, you will be nothing than a mere puppet, is that what you want? Are you so desperate that you would throw away your free will in order to get me back?"

"I would stay on hell until it froze, I would sell both my soul and heart if I could have the real Matthew back, not this guy. This is not you! You are not the gentle, arrogant bastard that I fell in love with! And I will bring him back. I don't care if your daddy is overprotecting you or what, but I'm going to free you from his strings, no matter what it takes."

"Yeah, do so." My voice was becoming colder, as my anger turned into true coldness towards her "You know, I've been trying to avoid this, but maybe it's for the best. You are playing Wolf's game now Maquiel, every single step you made, every single decision, everything has gone according to his plot. At the end we are all tied by the same strings, his."

She flinched at my words, and they terrified her. My eyes gave her the creep and I was about to do something, I didn't know what, but anything. My whole body lusted for her and my lips couldn't resist anymore, I wanted to save this person, but it was impossible. Once again I stepped forwards in order to meet her face, but she was no longer there. I looked backwards and both Melanie and Link were gone, and so was Robert. It had to be Pit's doing.

I sat on the grass as I started to cry a little bit. I didn't regret meeting them, but it was too hard to see them again like this.

"Take care of things from now on Wolf." I said out loud "I don't want to see the outcome."

And thus, I was embraced by the comfort of the darkness.

* * *

It was kind of ridiculous for Pit to be driving a black Mercedes around the night, he could have take me to Santiago in a blink, but I knew that being in a road was one way to make a metaphor visual, also he wanted to have this instance to have a private conversation. I looked at the window to the road, the trees and grass covered by the darkness of the night, a starless night with a faint moonlight.

I failed.

"Where are Melanie, Link and Robert?"

"Melanie and Link are at their home. I left Lucario in charge of Robert."

"Lucario?"

"I said I had recruits for the upcoming battle." He reminded me "I created a smasher's faction called 'the night stalkers'. One of the night stalkers is Lucario, who is taking care of him."

"He is responsible for Robert's power, isn't he?" I asked serious "Lucario's power is aura; Robert's power is aura… how I never connected the dots? It's self evident that they have affinity."

"Robert refused to have another smasher inside him, so Lucario gives him his blood. If you recall we already discussed the effects of eating a heart. It's like that, although it's weaker. I really hoped that Robert would be able to destroy Wolf's soul and leave Matthew behind, but it seems that he either needed more juice or that his power isn't enough."

"What are you after Pit?" I asked while I looked with a sorrow gaze at the night landscape.

"When we were created, there were two entities that ruled us. Human created them in order to keep us under control. Those are Tabuu and Palutena."

"I thought Palutena was along with your final smash."

"That's an image of her, the real one would have turned Wolf to dust."

"And what exactly do they do?" I asked, but I wasn't really interested at all, after the beat up of the afternoon I was too depressed to even care about such crucial information.

"It's balance of war and peace. We were created as military weapons, so there had to be something that balanced us, powerful enough so humans could keep us under constant control."

"And yet you rebelled."

"The rebellion wasn't planned by us, but humans themselves."

I stared at him and frowned, that last bit caught my attention.

"Do you really need me to go into details in that?"

"No," I could figure it out many outcomes, humans controlling the smashers to rebel against humans, and there were thousands of reasons to do that, but I didn't care about that, I wanted to get straight to the point "just tell me what Tabuu and Palutena have to do with you."

"At difference from many of us, Palutena and Tabuu need a human vessel to manifestation in this world, it's not like the smashers that materialized in this world, they are too big souls and they need powerful vessels. I've been searching for Palutena's vessel, the one who will bring an end to this war."

"Let me guess, it was Matthew."

"But it can be you," I stared at him puzzled "I've been making you strong for that sake, and if you let Palutena's soul and let her act, she will bring Matthew back to you."

For an instance I felt a great amount of excitement and hope when I heard Pit's words, I didn't care about anything else.

"Is she powerful enough?"

"As I told you, she can turn Wolf into dust, separating their souls will be a piece of cake."

"What will happen to me?"

"As soon as the war is over, she will leave your body and you'll be able to meet Matthew. Now be aware of something…"

"I'll do it!"

"… You must leave Samus behind."

"_What?_" Samus thought filled my on the double, but I was embraced with so much hope that I couldn't care about it.

"And not only that, but you still need to get a little bit stronger, so I might take dramatic actions in order to make you a proper vessel."

"I don't care!" I could hear Samus complaining already, but I was desperate. Then I understood why he let me meet Matthew, why he left me fight Bowser by myself. I laughed "You were waiting for me to be desperate enough so I wouldn't say no, weren't you?"

"I'm sorry Maquiel, but I had to."

"It's ok; after all I'm meeting Matthew again soon."


	7. The rapture

**The rapture**

Those eyes told me everything. She was disappointed on me, and I understood it. I could tell how bad I must have been seen, packing up all the stuff, giving one last glimpse on the house that once upon a time was my home too, and my tears… those pathetic tears that fell from my face shouting out loud that I was backing off.

"Is this it?" Melanie asked kind of angered, kind of sad "After all what we've been through, you just… walk out?"

"You have no right to tell me that." I replied softly, but my voice started to turn aggressive "You were the one who told me to give up in the first place!"

"And I was wrong! Every single time I did!" I was about to leave the house, but she walked towards the door and covered the latch with her hand so I couldn't open the door "Please, not now. We've just found him."

"And it went down perfectly."

"We just tried once! We need to give it another shoot."

"So we wait another four years to talk to him again," I replied annoyed "and when we find him the power of love will bring him back… bad news Melanie, that shit doesn't work in reality!"

She sighed and she thrust me backwards, away from the door.

"You know I have to stop you."

"You can try, but you know I'm going to force the exit if it's necessary."

"Hence I brought help."

I was caught off guard, at the moment Melanie whispered "hence" someone already knocked me out.

Pitch black, nothingness. Was it like this for Matthew every single day? If it was, I had to stop it, even…. Even if I had to kill him.

* * *

I gave a sad glimpse to the room where Maquiel was locked in; I knew it wouldn't work for long, her super strength would take either the door or the wall down, but I didn't know what else I could do, but winning some minutes at least. I gave up my resistance and I fell on my knees in front of the door and started crying. We were losing everyone. Link's thin and strong arms surrounded my waist.

"I'm losing everyone." I said faintly.

"No, you are not."

"Just look around you!" I shouted "First it was Gabriel, then Matthew and Robert, Ash is about to leave, I'm certain, and now Maquiel. I mean look At Robert killing with his mind! And now Maquiel is about to serve as Pit's puppet… we were supposed to hold this side, the side Matthew created… I don't know what to believe anymore."

"No!" I shouted as I struggled to break the hug "I've got enough of you too! Acting like you love me, when you just love Zelda! If I was off dead and she was around you would leave too!"

"That's not…!"

"Get off me! Take your hand off me! Now!"

My words caught him off guard and I pushed him away from me, thrusting him towards the wall, while I ran to the main door that leaded to the garden. I didn't know where I was heading, but I wanted to be as far as possible from him. I opened the door that leaded to the street road with by kicking it and I ran for a bit in a straight line, crossing the street, heading nowhere until I stopped around a park bench to shed some tears. I looked upwards.

I knew Pit had evil intentions for Maquiel, he was self righteous, I didn't buy his words about Palutena for a bit, and Robert was losing himself on the path he was walking, all because of Pit's puppet Lucario. At this rate my brother would…

"I need some help." I said as I rubbed my eyes with my palm.

I wasn't sure who I was talking to, but I just hoped that a god out there would have mercy on us.

I looked next to me and there was someone. My eyes burnt on rage when I saw Kirby at my side. On the last four years he was hardly ever away from, only those times in which Pit wanted me and Maquiel to be left on our own. I looked at him with rage, while his face remained calmed.

"What do you want from me?" I asked as I felt like hanging him (it'd be a futile attempt as he has no neck) "What has Pit ordered you to do?"

But he wouldn't answer, he wasn't able to talk, only his face could tell us something, but right now he was locking every single thing that he could have said. I could only read on his face a phrase "go home."

"Why are you following Pit?" I asked "Why do you trust him? What do you really want to achieve?"

But Kirby wouldn't answer; he was cold, only expecting me to walk home. He was some kind of a guardian around me, I knew that much, he was watching every move I made, even while sleeping; I'd find him staring at me at some times. I felt a huge amount of hatred around him back there, I just wanted to get away from him, and as he wouldn't leave until I walked back home, I did so.

Kirby stopped following me, he could detect that I was really going home; otherwise he would have followed me. He was a whole mystery to me, a great and skilled fighter who was hiding his true self. He wasn't how I exactly pictured him.

I took a deep breath while walking back home, ashamed of my words. I tried to keep my cool, I had to be strong or we would Maquiel too… it was something we couldn't afford.

I stared at the entrance door and I started whining one more time before rolling the latch. I found Link, who was about to run his way out of the house.

"It's not true," he said leaving aside any other question or comment he had "Even if Zelda got her own body, I could not harm you. I never said anything because I thought you'd never accept me as the same, as a human. I swore to protect Zelda until the ends of time, I'm bounded to her because of that, and I love her, but that can't be compared to what I feel towards you. She is the woman I care about, the woman I must take care of, but you are the woman that I love Melanie, you are the one who I truly love."

His words gave me both a warm and cold sensation on the chest. On one side it was my heart full of excitement, beating fast as my face turned red, and on the other side there was a hurt Zelda, whose feelings filled me with an ice cold sensation. She loved his protector as I loved him too. It was a love triangle.

"I'm sorry Zelda." I thought

She wasn't angry at me, she was angry at him.

The kiss wasn't avoided, I received it happily as Zelda's heart broke in million pieced. In the end, I was the one who won his heart.

It was rare, but soft. Link was being a real gentleman; his hands rubbed my hair softly as mines crossed around his back.

I felt bad for Zelda; because I was sure the situation was all the way around. It was the best and worst experience so far for me, the burning love on Link's lips and tongue was enough for me to forget about everything, but Zelda's pain that was holding tight on my chest. She didn't hate me, although she felt a burning jealousy. She despised Link for this betrayal, but was it really a betrayal? At least that was what she felt.

I remained close to his chest, hearing his heart beats.

"Even if everyone leaves you, I won't. I love you Melanie."

"I love you too." I sighed "I'm sorry, I'm kind of moody today."

"Yeah, I noticed."

"But I still don't know what to do about Maquiel."

"She just needs time and support. And luckily Sophie and Salaric are coming home today."

It would be great to have mom back after three weeks, she had to enjoy her honeymoon with Salaric in order to be ready for the war. Support was here, but there was one thing we were lacking; that was time.

* * *

"Sir, I brought you both Lady Sophie and Mister Salaric."

I didn't know why Wolf might have wanted both, but I went through a hell in order to trap them both. Salaric turned some of my comrades in trophies before we could inject the shut down on both of them; I almost fall on battle with him. He was too fast for my sword to reach, if it wasn't because of Falco I would have certainly been killed, he wouldn't even turned me into a trophy, those eyes were ready to kill, all in the name of Sophie. And here they were now, asleep in Wolf's mercy.

The castle was even bigger than the last time I was here, and it was changed from the inside too. The corridors were no longer empty, but full of people and smashers working, something had to been put on. There was some kind of bed in the center of the room, a litter. Salaric was put on it.

I was staring at the surrounding of the room. The stone walls made the environment to feel frozen, the whole space was huge and empty, every word had echoes, and there were only a few windows so the space was dark.

"Great job Meta Knight." He said "After I finish with Salaric I need you to imprison them."

"Yes, sir." I stared at Sophie, her golden curly hair covered a face those twelve hours ago was full of hatred and sorrow; she knew that it was his son who commanded the rapture. I felt pity on her, we ruined the moment in which love burnt in both of their eyes. And she had something else to take care of "Sir… I'm afraid that Lady Sophie needs special treatment."

"What do you mean?"

"She is pregnant."

Those eyes didn't belong to Wolf, but Matthew; the surprise. Wolf was little worried about such a thing, he could handle her and treat her according to her pregnancy, but it was Matthew's eyes through Wolf's only eye, he didn't expect it, and he was puzzled about what he felt.

"Lock her in a separate room from Salaric, and be sure that it's a good one."

"Yes, sir."

"Now, let's take care of these guys."

It was bizarre to look at this. My eyes stared with terror how Wolf's claws were piercing around Salaric chest, but no blood came out. Salaric woke up suddenly and started screaming, but he couldn't move. His yell was filling the whole siege castle as something was coming out of his chest. It was a blue and a green light. The green one made its way out of the body and escaped from Wolf's hand; no, it didn't escape, Wolf let it go. And the blue one was kept on his hand until he threw it to the floor. It was like a spark that grew bigger and bigger until it took a material shape. My eyes opened wide when I recognized the shape. It was Sonic. The green spark must have been Yoshi.

I stared at Salaric's chest, and it wasn't open anymore, it was like it was never opened.

I stared with fear at Wolf, he was able to take a soul out of a shape shifter, it scared me to think how many of his powers I was ignoring.

"Salaric must be the only human who can withstands having two souls at once." He commented.

"Is he ok?"

"Yes, he is alive, just shocked."

"And what about Sonic?"

"He's been caged on Salaric's body for four years, it's usual that he can't regain his consciousness right away."

"What are you going to do with them, sir?"

"Salaric might be the key." He said "So I got to put an eye on him and as for Sonic… you might let him go."

"But sir…!"

"He is going to help us fight Pit, even when he doesn't want to help us at all. It's better if we let him act on his own, giving him the illusion of freedom."

I wasn't going to argue with Wolf, I didn't find in myself any way of doing so. I feared him, my whole entity was afraid of the smasher in front of me. I took Sonic's body and I headed out of the room, leaving an exhausted Salaric and a fainted Sophie lying in the ground. I was wondering if I would be the next lying lifeless on the ground.


	8. Point of no return

**Point of no return**

"Why haven't you escaped yet?"

Pit was in front of me, talking so quietly that I had to be next to him in order to listen.

I was locked in Melanie's room, it would take me a second to break the latch or escape from the window, but I was just sit on the bed next to Pit who appeared out of nowhere. I wasn't hesitating about what to do, I was sure about my choice, but I wanted to have the chance to say goodbye to Melanie, after all what we've been through she deserved that much.

"I want to say goodbye." I said "I'm going to be out for a while, so I need at least the chance to know that she's not going to see me around for a bit."

"Fair enough," he said "we'll meet later then. You'll know how to find me."

He disappeared once again, left me alone in the room while I considered what words I should use. Samus was furious with me, she didn't want to talk to me, she couldn't believe after all this time I was leaving her for some stranger.

"It's the only way."

But she didn't hear me, she was too far away from me, back then she despised me, she was too hurt to say anything. Soon I would leave her… and maybe for good. After all our battles, after all what she taught me and supported me, I wanted to let her know how grateful I was for all of that, and how sorry I was to be too weak to do this by ourselves.

"I'm sorry."

But I had no answer. Maybe I'd get nothing, but at least she was listening (or so I thought) and she'd know that it was due to despair and it had nothing to do with her.

The latch rolled and the door was opened in a matter of seconds, while Melanie entered.

"I was afraid that you'd knock down the door."

"I wouldn't." I replied as she closed the door behind her "But it can't stop me forever."

"At least one minute is ok." She answered as she sat next to me "Maquiel, over these four years we've become best friends, I see you as a bigger sister, that's why I can't let you go."

"I know…"

"Let me finish," She said cutting my phrase "I realized that there's no way to lose you, so you are coming with me."

"Where to?"

"Link and I are going to fight off some smashers and you are coming with us."

I frowned at her, I didn't expect that answer.

"Are you sure this is a good idea?"

"Link doesn't think it is."

"He is right." I said laughing "Because as soon as we are done I'm going to be running towards Pit to inject Palutena's soul through my veins."

"Well, chaining you here it's not a choice, you have your brutal strength and you'd break it on the double." She giggled, but her voice was a little bit broken "Also I have faith that when we are under pressure, you will make the right call."

"You know what the right call is."

"We are not going to talk on this anymore." She said as she took my hand to lead me out of the room "You are not a clone of Matthew, you will definitely see through the situation… you won't leave me like he did."

Now I understood her game, and it was hard to hear those words, but it was all a strategy. She wanted to make me feel just like I was mimicking Matthew so I would decline in the last second, but I knew I wouldn't… maybe it was even harder to do it that way. Melanie didn't really have faith in me, she was desperate because she knew there was no chance that she could leave me locked in, either I'd escape or Pit would take me off, so the only way to keep me sure was to be under her surveillance. Poor Melanie, she wouldn't stand a second against Pit, and yet there she was, heading towards a battle front that she had no chance of winning.

"Ash is still not back?" I asked.

"You bet," she said with a broken smile "I hope Lucas and Pikachu are making their best efforts to convince him, but there is no sign of them, so it's going to be just me, you and Link."

That hurt, I could see how hard Melanie was struggling to keep it together, our side was never this weakened, and soon it wouldn't be able to be even called a "side" it would be a couple against the world, and they had no chance. I felt awful and I felt like hugging Melanie, but there was no chance while going upstairs, or while crossings the door towards the street. Link was waiting for us outside of the house. I took a glimpse on my clock and it marked 4:00 P.M.

"Shouldn't Salaric and Sophie be already here?" I asked. "It's already August the second."

"The flight might have got delayed," Melanie suggested "they'll be fine, they are grown ups."

I wasn't completely sure, but I nodded and we left. We walked in a straight line and Link suddenly hid on the surroundings so he wouldn't be seen by people. He was following us while hiding at the same time. I was looking at the city a little bit nostalgic, how would it be when all was over? I sighed as Melanie started running and so I did the same.

When we came down to the place where the smashers were, the people already fled of the place, leaving the whole space for us to fight. It was a square wasteland, a good fighting territory. There was Sheik there waiting for us. Link seemed surprised to see him.

"Sheik!" Link yelled "I thought…"

"That I was dead?" he asked "No Link, I've been standby."

Link didn't want to fight, but talk. We didn't shape shift. We waited to see if he was either an ally or enemy. I couldn't stop wondering why could we meet him like this, he was Zelda's alter-ego… then I realized that Melanie never transformed into Sheik. I always thought that she didn't know how, but then I realized that it was that she was unable to. Melanie also got curious about all this.

"Whose side are you?" Link asked while he drew his sword puzzled.

Sheik wasn't stunned or surprised by Link's sword. He just remained tranquil, until he spoke.

"The night stalkers."

I was filled with anger and hatred when I saw a shape materializing in the air; it was Lucario. I closed my fits as I glared at him.

"You!" I said with rage pointing at him. I didn't care if it was part of Pit's plot, but I would never forgive him for what he did to Robert "You turned Robert into that monster!"

I was about to head towards him and punch him, but I resisted, I tried to cool down, I couldn't let my emotions to ruin everything. Lucario didn't answer, he looked down on me and he sighed, while Sheik raised his hand, a signal of halt.

"We are not your enemies." He said firmly "Wolf's smashers will arrive soon, and we must hold them."

I could recognize some others shape arriving. King Dedede and Mr Game and Watch, along with some former Wolf's allies like DK and Diddy Kong. Kirby appeared out of nowhere, he stayed at Melanie's back, which seemed to annoy her.

"What have you done to Robert?" Melanie asked to Lucario, she was confused by my words.

"_My task is to protect Robert and make him stronger._" He replied calmly to Melanie, Pit probably told him that I was aware "_He chose this path, and I have no intentions to stop him. He will grow strong enough to defeat Wolf._"

_So Robert won't be left alone until Wolf is defeated… _Pit had insurance in case that I declined, in case that I withstood his offer. The poor Robert suffered enough for a life time, maybe two, I couldn't let this keep up.

I detected how Melanie's feelings rose to a pitch angered point, almost touching fury, she shape shifted and Sheik seemed to be shocked.

"So you are Melanie." Sheik said out of nothing "It's a pleasure to meet you."

"Don't give me that crap!" Melanie shouted "I don't trust Pit, neither his puppets! We don't want things to end bloody, so scram and let us do our way!"

"_We didn't come here to fight you!_" Lucario replied "_We should be allies, not enemies!_"

"We're not your allies!" Melanie yelled back "If Wolf's smashers come here to fight us, then let us do it! You haven't been around in four years, so why bother now?"

"Because we were gathered now!" Sheik replied "Pit joined us; he made us see a way to end this madness."

"Back off!" Melanie said losing it.

"_You will have to make us._"

I saw an incoming battle, but it was suddenly stopped. Some kind of green lightning crossed the wasteland dividing the sides were the night stalkers were and where we were. After the lightning fell from the sky, it took a shape. We were stunned at the shape.

"YOSHI!" I yelled as I ran towards him.

The night stalkers froze puzzled, while Melanie, Link and I ran to check on him. It was him, no doubt, the saddle, the big nose, the boots, the tail. He was asleep, but he was breathing. I wondered if it was Salaric… but if he was…

Our blood froze, especially Melanie's, something bad must have happened to both Sophie and Salaric. Tears of despair covered Melanie's face.

"Salaric!" she yelled while she snapped Yoshi out of his sleep "Salric, is that you?"

"_Brother? Is it you?_"

It was a deception for both sides. It was Yoshi, which meant something went awfully wrong with Salaric and Yoshi saw Melanie, but no Robert.

"_Where's Robert?_" he asked. He didn't remember a thing after the last battle with Wolf on the desert fortress. "_Is he ok?_"

Yoshi was weak, he could barely remain awake, he could barely stand, but he wouldn't faint until he got his answer.

"He is fine." Melanie lied, she couldn't tell the truth, she didn't have the time and she didn't want to break Yoshi's heart.

"_He is not on Wolf's control, is he?_"

"No, he is not." Melanie's face was full of pity, anger, concern and love at the same time; it was hard for her to contain so many feelings at the same time.

"_You must take him somewhere to rest."_ Lucario said "_This place will become a battlefield, we cannot protect him."_

Melanie was reluctant about leaving; she didn't want to leave things to them. She gulped as she handed Yoshi's body to Link.

"Take him home." Melanie ordered.

Link was about to refute, but he kept shut. He could detect on Melanie's eyes a determination that made him go away. Melanie took a step forward at the same time Link ran off with Yoshi's weak body in his hands. Kirby also stepped forward; it was the first time that I realized that Kirby used to, most of the times, mimic Melanie's moves and keep an eye on her. We were watched by Pit all the time, we were tested by him all the time, and in the end we were playing under his strings. He was the only one holding the answer. And Melanie would get hurt unless I did something dramatic to change it.

"Go home Melanie."

She turned back to me and she looked at me kind of angered, kind of sad. She knew that my command meant more than that. She stood still as she looked at me on the eyes with burning spirit.

"I told you I'm not letting you do this."

"And I told you that I'm going to do it anyway."

The night stalkers were puzzled by our conversation, but they remained in silence, the battle probably had some time before it began.

Melanie walked towards me.

"If I have to fight you in order to…"

"Fight me?" I asked coldly. I hated myself for my next words "You are nothing, but a mere child Melanie. You are far too weak; you haven't even been able to call your final smash yet. You are a child waiting to be rescued by a big brother who is not coming home."

She shed tears both of anger and sorrow. Her hand closed into a fist and she attempted to punch me. I stopped the hand in mid air by grabbing the wrist and I punched her waist with might. Melanie coughed as she spat some water and then she threw up. She coughed a little bit more and then she attempted once again to attack me, but I kicked her face and sent her backwards as she landed on the dry ground.

"How can you say you are going to stop me when you can't even fight me in my human form?"

"Maquiel," she said faintly "please…"

"We can't win Melanie, this is the only way."

"Didn't you say…?" Melanie started as she shape shifted back to her human self "Didn't you say that you wouldn't sell you soul to darkness?"

"This isn't darkness, but light Melanie. Now leave."

She stood up, she was a mess. She could barely breathe correctly. She was too weak to belong to this battle, I just hit her two times and she was already out of breath. She couldn't, I couldn't stand it, watching her fight so hard and seeing her fall trying… no, I wouldn't have it, I couldn't let Melanie go through that, I had to get his brother back no matter what, I couldn't stand to watch someone so weak attempting to fight and failing so awfully.

"This is it Melanie."

There was a crack on the sky, something was about to happen. I looked upwards and then I noticed that Pit appeared out of nowhere. He gave a signal to Kirby and he knocked Melanie out with a hard punch on the waist. Then he took her out of the wasteland. I stared at Pit.

"I'm ready." I said.

"Will you fight this battle?"

"Let the night stalkers do their job."

"Then let's lose no time. I have to make you even stronger."

I was taken to not wake up in a while.


	9. The Lost Pride

**The lost pride**

"We are done for."

Link was all around me, but it wasn't enough. It was true, I was weak, I was unable to save Matthew, all this time I was just on the side lines helping little with my magic, I wasn't even able to do my final smash yet, no matter how hard I tried there was always something that avoided me from releasing it. I could feel my spirit, I was trained to use it, but I was not able to form the final smash. I was impulsive and reckless; I wasn't able to fight on equal terms to skilled smashers. Just as Maquiel said I was nothing, but a child with powers running around the grown ups.

"We are not."

"Link, I'm weak." I said faintly "Mom is not here, something happened to her, Salaric is nowhere to be found either. Robert is under Lucario's strings, Maquiel about to become Pit's puppet. There is no way to win, there are only two of us and neither of us is strong enough to do this."

"Don't say that." He said while taking me to his chest "We'll find a way."

"Why are you so sure?"

"Because we have to." He finally said "Yoshi needs us to be strong; he might help us recovering Robert. It's a beginning! If we can get him back then…!

"Then what? We would be three again! Oh three people against the world, how could we fail before?"

"Please Mel," I was surprised; it was the first time in many years that someone called me that "You know it's the right thing to do."

I knew it, but it was pointless too. I sighed as I closed my eyes. I tried to look for a solution.

"_Don't give up._" Zelda said "_Or at least see it this way; there's nothing scarier than a warrior who has nothing to lose._"

"At this rate we will lose Link too." I thought as the image of a bleeding to death Link appeared on my mind. Tears filled my face.

"_There's no way I'm letting that happen._"

"I said the same about Matthew and Maquiel, and look how they are now."

I was snapped out of my thoughts when Link kissed me. He put me softly on the sofa as he started rubbing my face. His look was full of an endless sorrow, a sincere tear fell from his face to me as he started whining, and suddenly he felt unable to keep kissing me.

"It's my entire fault Melanie." He said "It was me and Ganondorf who started all this… that's why…" he cleaned his tears as his voice became clearer "that's why I decided not to give up and fix all this. I don't care if I have to fight by myself, I caused you too much misery for me to care, but I'm going to find the way to fix all this. That's why I won't give up, I know I'm not a shape shifter, that I can't use my final smash and that I'm not at the level to keep an equal fight with them. But I can't give up, I started all of this and I have to end it, that's why no matter what I can't quit."

I hugged Link right away. I always assumed that he was doing this for Zelda and me; I never got to realize that he carried the burden of a heavy guilt on his chest. My eyes stared at the ground and reflected my pathetic face on the wooden floor. I wasn't a kid anymore, but I wasn't an adult either. I stared at the floor and my eyes suddenly turned confident. I wasn't strong, but there must have been something I was able to do… anything at all. But yet again, I didn't know what it was.

It was all too fast, we were on our own. I didn't know how to proceed.

Yoshi crawled his way around us. I looked at him, he was so beat up, so tired and yet his exhausted eyes were looking for Robert. I was about to say something when he finally spoke to us.

"_What happened to everyone?_"

I forgot that Yoshi was unconscious from the moment Robert agreed to be Wolf's vessel until now, he didn't know what happened to Matthew, and less about Maquiel now. I found it hard to explain, I was about to start talking as he asked:

"_Where is Matthew? I don't see Maquiel, Sophie or Salaric around either… and what about Ash, Lucas and Pikachu? Are they gone too?"_

I was about to start crying, but somehow I was able to hold the tears and the whine, while my throat tried to give some words that could match with what I wanted to say.

Yoshi looked into my eyes and his eyes turned to show a very deep sorrow.

"_Matthew surrendered to Wolf's will… didn't he?"_

I could not answer, I just nodded while my eyes turned aside; I couldn't keep watching at Yoshi's sad eyes, they were too hurt, too full of sorrow.

"_What happened to Mario?_"

I wasn't able to answer either, I just got up from the couch and I went down stairs to Matthew's room. Yoshi followed me and then I opened the door to show him the room. It was completely tidy, no one moved a thing, it was like time was halted, everything was still; the books on the shelves, the desk and the computer, the half way opened window and of course, Mario's body lying down on Matthew's bed didn't move either.

Yoshi stepped forward, his eyes suddenly became even sadder than before, the sorrow was overwhelming them as the tears came down through his eyes and fell on Mario's arm.

"_Would you leave me alone with him?_"

I did, there was no way I could stay around with such a pain overwhelming the area. Before I closed the door before me I saw how Yoshi was lying next to Mario on the bed. He said 'Yoshi' once out loud, softly and broken. Then I heard his thoughts.

"_Don't' worry Mario. I'm here to protect you buddy. I slept four years to wake up, take your time._" I was unable to close the door, my eyes wanted to see this scene "_You can take your time, because there's no way I'm letting them hurt you buddy._"

He said 'Yoshi' one more time out loud as he stayed next to Mario.

When I closed the door I totally fell apart on tears and sobbing. I was unable to think properly, I was unable to make a choice; I could only stay next to the door and cry in silence so I wouldn't interrupt Yoshi. It was the cutest thing I've ever heard, such loyalty, such fraternal love. I wasn't sure what was the right thing anymore, should I be with them? Should I surrender myself to Pit as well? Nothing seemed clear; all my surroundings were liquefied due to my tears. I finally succumbed to crying, a silent crying that filled my throat as I tried to stand up, but I could not. When I was finally able to stand up I remembered that we still had Snake's trophy. My head gave me just one idea. I ran towards the living room to the table where the trophy was left. Link frowned at first and then his eyes glared at me when I revived Snake on the hallway.

"Melanie! What are you doing?"

"Where is my brother?" I asked all sudden, and before Snake could rise his arms to try to defend I slapped him on the face twice "I asked you a question, where's Matthew you son of a bitch!"

"Do you really think that I'd tell you that if you slap me? That doesn't even qualify as naïve, but stupidity!"

I hit his face before he could defend, I never stopped. I just hit his face over and over until he kicked my waist in order to get rid of me, but even then I jumped towards him and I bit his arm as hard as I could. He yelled and he hit to get me of him, but I just hit his crouch with my knee and he stopped for a second, it got to hurt. I wasn't going to stop hitting him, but Link got me out of his body and he pierced his chest with his sword. Snake was a trophy once again as I struggled to get Link's hand of me.

"Get your hands off me Link!"

"You're too irrational! You need to calm down!"

"This bastard knows where my brother is! Let me take him down!"

We heard a sharp sound that became clearer after some seconds. It was an explosion. I left Link's arm and I got up, then I got out of the house and Link followed me as we stared at the sky. The streets were cut and people were closing their doors and windows hoping for something that could protect them. The terror spread all around the city, even when the battle was miles away on a wasteland, but they knew that it could get worse. They feared their powerless; they feared that they would be unable to avoid the catastrophe.

I stared at the sky and prayed for an end. A shadow appeared next to me and Link stopped a yellow sword that almost rubbed my cheek. I was too distracted to even realize that Meta Knight was about to cut my head. Link pushed Meta Knight backwards. Link took me and jumped forward as behind us the entrance door exploded. My eyes stared at the entrance door and I stared at a revived Snake.

"What took you so long?" Meta Knight asked.

"I've been keeping an eye on them; the girl got into some kind of rage and revived me only to be killed once again. Luckily I knew I had to save the revival badge where she wouldn't see it."

Link got up and he looked at both Meta Knight and Snake puzzled. He wasn't sure if he could battle them both at the same time.

"Melanie, help me out!"

But I couldn't, my eyes shed tears as I thought it was pointless. I had to burden with Zelda shouting at me to help Link, but I was unable to, I wasn't able to think in fighting back there. Link looked at me with sorrow and he pointed his sword towards Snake as his left hand drew a bomb to launch towards Meta Knight. His eyes were filled with determination.

"Come on Link," Snake said sighing "you can't fight us at the same time."

"I don't care."

"Move it! There is no reason to kill you."

"I said I don't care!"

Link threw the bomb towards Meta Knight and then he grabbed me and he thrust me away from the entrance. Snake threw a grenade that Link avoided and he turned backwards to block a hit of Meta Knight's Galaxia, while Snake punched his back. Link fell to the floor, but he rolled as he dropped his sword and drew his bow and an arrow to shoot to Snake's head, but the arrow was slashed by Meta Knight's Galaxia and Link drew as many bombs as he could so he could throw them against the, but before he could do it the bombs were scatter by Meta Knight's mini tornado, and Snake grabbed Link to start kicking his waist. His hands were grabbed by Meta Knight and they were pulled backwards as Snake held his back and kicked his waist endless times.

I shed tears as my body tried to move, but I couldn't.

"I don't know what to do."

"_Fight!_" Zelda commanded.

"I don't know if it has a point doing it…"

"_Protect him!_"

But I lost faith in myself, I couldn't do it. In the middle of the despair something very embarrassing came out from my lips as tears filled my face.

"Save us… MATTHEW!"

My yell was heard, but ignored as I kept crying and staring to the grass.

Snake stopped kicking Link and Meta Knight released his arms.

"They are no threat at all." Snake declared.

"There is no reason to kill them," Meta Knight continued "Wolf said if we could avoid killing them it was the best."

"All this time as a trophy to watch a girl whine." Snake said as he walked off "Let's go to the real battlefield."

Link was left badly injured on the floor as rain started to fall. I felt useless, pathetic; I felt that there was nothing that I could possible do. But then looking at Link fighting both of them at the same time I realized that he was ready to die doing the right thing. I wasn't sure what was right or not anymore, but I knew that I didn't want to keep crying like I just did. I couldn't stop crying, but I was tired of it. I wasn't a kid any more. I tried to stop the flow of tears, but it was too much. I lost almost everyone, I felt lonely, abandoned. I lost every speck of dignity and pride I had. I looked at myself and I wondered if this was the woman who I thought it was going to save Matthew. Suddenly I started hating myself.

I walked through the rain next to an unconscious Link and I grabbed his body to get him inside. This could not be repeated, there had to be some sense around all this.

I took Link's body inside the house and I got Navi out of his belt. I released her in order to start healing him.

Zelda was just straight pissed of with me, she hated me for letting this happen, but I wasn't able to fight. I stared at my arms and I thought how many times we fought hopeless battles and still stood up and fought back. All those time I was around Matthew, Gabriel, Robert or Maquiel, I always tried to be an adult, but in the end I was just a child. And it made sense, when all started I was ten years old, even now that I was fourteen I was able to tell that there was something broken on my at that time, that was why I fell apart now. All my resolve, all my dreams and hopes were smashed to dust as soon as Maquiel gave me the first punch to my waist. I knew it wasn't right the choice she was making, but I was unable to stop her, and now the easiest way to go was to blame all to my powerlessness. I closed a fist and I gave it a second thought. The man who I loved was lying injured on the floor of my house because I was unable to make a choice; my brother and my best friend were being used as puppets because I could not stand for them. It was my lack of resolve, there were many things, and despite they were little, which I could do. I never really supported Matthew, I always expected him to save everyone, and I did the same with Maquiel. I looked through the window to the war that was taking place outside. I could not be out of it; there was no escape from it. Only one question surrounded my mind; what should I do?


	10. The Lost link

**_Author Note: _**_The title has been change due to a confusion while translating, the previous title had no meaning, the idea came from the spanish phrase "vínculados a estar juntos de nuevo" (linked to be together again), so I decided to change it so there wouldn't be further confusions, also I re-wrote this chapter around 3 times, so there were some grammars mistakes (like ever xD) that I took care of. Now all I can say is, enjoy and review!

* * *

_

**The lost link  
**

_You are a child who waits to be rescued by a big brother that won't go home_. Maquiel's words were hard and cold, they were like a slap on the face, but just maybe it was what I needed. I couldn't depend on Pit to keep me posted where the smashers would be any longer; he knew I was against him now.

It had been three weeks since the last time I saw them. Yoshi was recovering slowly, but he was definitely better. He walked around the house waiting for the chance to see Robert, while Link waited for me to make up my mind.

I was weak, I knew that much, but I couldn't remain doing nothing, I had to do something, even if it was little I could do. I tried to think on something I could do. I looked at Yoshi and I detected on his eyes the despair of seeing Robert once again. I gulped, I was not strong enough to withstand Robert's power, but at least I could give this sad Yoshi what he wanted.

I broke the hug that I kept with Link and I sat on the couch as I concentrated. I had one thing I could use. I could track Robert.

I remembered how Robert's soul felt like and how it was like; no matter how much he changed his soul must have remained the same.

I heard footsteps and I sensed it was Yoshi the one who was walking towards me. He was about to say something, but Link must have kept him quiet, because there was no thought interrupting me.

"I found him." I said as I got up.

"_Finally!_" Zelda said approving my actions. "_About time you made up your mind!_"

"I might not be able to beat him…" I said while closing my fist "but Yoshi, you must talk to Robert!"

Yoshi was still exhausted and confused, but my words cheered him up as his eyes started burning on determination. He pointed to his saddle with his face.

"_Hop on you two!_"

I couldn't believe I was actually riding Yoshi. As soon as I sat on the saddle with Link at my back Yoshi ran past the open door as he waited for my directions.

"To the right!"

"Yoshi!"

It was strange to think of riding Yoshi, Robert would have never let any of us hope on his back while in Yoshi's form, but of course they were very different.

I focused on Robert's location; I had to use my whole concentration in order to keep aware of where he was. It was 6:00 P.M by now and in winter time twilight cross Santiago around that hour. The sun light was fading as Robert's soul became every second brighter. Yoshi was surprisingly faster than what I thought; I had to hold tight around his neck in order to avoid falling. We were heading outside the city, near of a valley where industries used to be put as nobody lived around.

When I opened my eyes the day was turned into pure night, illuminated by stars and moonlight. Robert was in front of us and his face was stunned by Yoshi's presence.

Link and I dismounted him as we stared at Robert. We were inside a forest, in a clear, there was only grass around our feet, the trees surrounded us, but there was a circle area like a ring that gave us space to move freely.

"Yoshi…" he said stunned.

"_Brother…_"

I glared at Robert.

"Robert, Yoshi wanted to see you." I said firmly as I stepped forward "You owned him an explanation four years ago. Better later than never."

"How?" he asked shocked "How come you are back?"

"_I don't know myself_." Yoshi replied "_But I am, and I wanted to see you_."

Robert stared at me, his eyes revealed to be annoyed. He raised his hand against me and Link covered me immediately as he drew his sword to show that he was going to protect me.

"It's too late." He said "Not only I don't deserve to hold Yoshi's soul, but I have become something terrible. I can't do it again!"

"_I haven't forgotten_." Yoshi said severe, as he caught Robert's attention "_I never forgot the moment you made your choice, the moment you betrayed me. I will never forgive you Robert… I'm not able to, because I can see that your eyes still lust for that power, is that why you have sold yourself to Lucario?_"

I didn't know how Yoshi was aware about Robert's and Lucario's relation, but he did, and he made Robert flinch. His eyes were puzzled, his body was frozen, and he was confused and terrified by Yoshi's words. Yoshi's eyes became full of sorrow.

"_I can't let you remain this way Robert, I can't lose you again! I slept for four years; I lost too much time wondering in the darkness what I did wrong. I felt guilty for being unable to stop you…_"

"Stop it."

"_I always thought I did something wrong, that I was too weak for you_."

"Stop it!" He shouted as a tear came by.

"_But it wasn't me… it was your own unhappiness._"

Robert didn't say it for a third time. Yoshi was thrust against a tree. He yelled as Robert's hand burnt on blue aura and his breathe started to turn irregular, but it wasn't because he was tired, he was just shocked, he was so shocked that he lost his ability to breathe as usual.

I gulped and I walked towards him, glaring at him. His eyes were filled in suffering and sorrow, there was something wrong with them, something inside Robert was broken into pieces, and those pieces tried to joint once again, but that process hurt.

"Pit told me something happened to you." I said as Robert glared at me with hatred "You were becoming warmer and optimistic… until it happened. I have no idea what it is, but you feel it was because of lacking of power, don't you? So when Lucario offered you to give you power, you couldn't resist. You wanted so badly to be able to get back what you lost… but you can't Robert! All you can do is let it go and move forward!"

"Shut it!" he said as he grabbed me with his hands "Melanie, if I haven't killed you right now is because I still hold some affection towards you for the time we spent together in the past."

I didn't answer, my eyes were giving Robert the whole answer and he threw me away. I landed on the grass as I felt Robert's aura grasping my soul. It was like someone squeezed my chest, but there was no one really doing it. I yelled and Link tried to stop Robert, but he was trapped too on his aura.

"Robert, please…!"

"What?" he asked "Do you want me to join forces with you again? You are too weak! You hold no chance to beat Wolf!"

"I know that much!" I replied as hard as I could, while trying to resist the pain "But this is not you!"

I could see something that was scaring me to dead. His hands were becoming alike Lucario's hands and burnt into a stronger aura. Robert's face was about to change too, was he…? Shape shifting? It was impossible, Lucario wasn't in Robert's body, but there he was, becoming slightly like him. Then I remembered the time Matthew started turning alike Wolf, there were only some characteristics that changed… it was smash x evolution.

"Stop it Robert!" I yelled "You don't belong with them!"

"I don't belong anywhere."

"That's not true…!" I shouted with might "You belong with us! You belong with Yoshi!"

The front of his face was now exactly the same as Lucario's face and his hands were the same too. I was held on the air as I started to miss air to breathe. I felt like fainting, I was unable to shape shift and I felt that I was reaching the ends of my days… no, I could not. There had to be some way out, Matthew always found them when he was in these situations. I looked around and above a high tree I could see a shadow.

"Yoshi! Above…!"

I wasn't able to say anything less, I wasn't able to say anything specific, but Yoshi stood up and jumped through trees as fast as he could until he crashed with something on the tree cup.

Robert's concentration faded and I started breathing fast, but correctly. I shape shifted as soon as I could and then I ran towards Robert. I wasn't sure about what to do now, but I thrust him to the ground while Yoshi brought Lucario to the ground. He seemed pissed with Yoshi.

"_Your time with Robert is gone._" He said "_He is on my care now!_"

"_Over my dead body, you dirty rat!_" Yoshi replied as he seemed about to growl, but he only said 'Yoshi' out loud in a strange angered tone.

Robert suddenly grabbed my neck and his hand started burning on aura. I felt that my whole soul was about to break in million pieces, but then I tried to stay focus on reality and think. I had to think fast. The aura was spreading around my whole body…

I touched Robert's face with my left hand and with might I tried to use my supernatural awareness in order to direct Robert's aura to my left hand. And I succeed soon, the flow of aura was now entering in Robert's system and I was looking for something specific, Lucario's blood.

"You bitch!" Robert yelled while he tried to get rid of me, but I held tight to him, I would at least drain all his monster blood.

But I wasn't able to take all of it. His face and hands were no longer like Lucario's, but Robert's eyes were still completely blue and his aura finished thrusting me away. I was about to die when some wings stopped the flow from the aura. I looked next to me and I was being held by Yoshi's hand. His wings were closed around me protecting me from Robert's aura attack.

Robert's eyes were horrified, Lucario's eyes could not believe what he was seeing and Link was also stunned. I looked at Yoshi confused.

"How?" I asked.

"_Robert and I are linked, even if we are not in the same body his soul is still attached to mine_." He said as his wings opened and a green aura surrounded him "_Robert!_" He shouted out loud to everyone's minds "_I won't forgive you for what you did, but I will walk along with you, I will help you with the burden of your actions! I will save you from the monster you are becoming!_"

"_Stop!"_ Lucario yelled.

But he found himself stopped by Link's sword; he wasn't going to let Lucario interfere.

Yoshi flew at high speed against Robert and they crashed, but as soon as Yoshi crashed on Robert he became a green spark that covered Robert's body and entered on it. Robert yelled and fainted.

Lucario was on rage and he was about to unleash his final smash.

"_He is not for you to take. Watch the power of aura!_"

I held Robert's body tightly as I prepared to somehow withstand the aura beam, but it wasn't necessary. Someone stopped Lucario from doing it. It was Kirby.

"Kirby!" I shouted.

"You can't kill her."

It was the first time Kirby spoke. I was stunned by how clear his words were and how soft his voice was. His eyes showed a stern posture and a severe look on Lucario who was still possessed by rage.

"He will go back to you." Kirby said "But you can't risk her life on it."

"_Why are so protective on her_?"

"Because it's my task." He answered coldly as Lucario calmed down "Pit needs you to do something else right now."

"_He took Robert! I was supposed to be…!_"

Kirby hit his face and then his ice cold told him to go away. Lucario gave us one glimpse of hatred as he left the forest behind.

I and Link stared at Kirby with our mouths and eyes opened wide. We couldn't believe he just talked.

"I don't talk much, so don't expect me to be constantly speaking." He said as he took Robert's body "Let's go home."


	11. The Black Rose Strikes

**The black rose strikes**

"Stupid Yoshi." Robert said while shedding tears "Always ready to suffer for me."

I wasn't sure whose side Robert was, I only knew that Yoshi was back on his body. Robert seemed to have breathing troubles at times, but it was only his whining and crying, he was moved by how Yoshi decided to stay at his side after everything that happened.

It had been around three weeks since he got back, and he didn't even once said anything about turning back with the night stalkers, neither about leaving. He spent most of the time on the guest room bed speaking with Yoshi, trying to understand him. I didn't know what to expect from him now.

"What will you do now?" I asked.

He stayed quiet for a bit, but he finally sighed.

"Sorry for all the trouble," he said as he bent on the couch "but there's one thing for sure. I can't let Yoshi pass for the same again."

"So, are you with us?"

"Melanie, I want your brother's inners in a plate." His answer wasn't nice "You want to save him. If I could, I'd return with the night stalkers, but I can't… not now that I have Yoshi back on me, I'm pretty sure Lucario would take it on him."

"Then what are you going to do?"

"I'm not jumping to the fight." I wasn't expecting him to do it right away, it was only natural that he'd felt that way "I need time to figure it out."

"Take your time," I said while smiling as I left for my room "I'll be waiting for your answer."

"Melanie?"

I halted as Robert's eyes caught me with an intense curiosity.

"How can you move forward?" he asked me with broken voice "You are alone on this, how can you possible hold it together and do the right thing? What's your goal?"

I smiled back at him with a sorrow gaze on my eyes. My goal… I could say that I wanted to save Matthew and I wouldn't be lying, but all this time fighting wasn't just for Matthew… I had been fighting my whole life on the purpose of avoiding him to get hurt, yet my true goal wasn't to protect him at all. Deep down in my heart I knew that I wanted my mother's approval, something Matthew always had and I never felt from her. I loved her, but she was a lousy mother. My eye blinked a couple of times before I answered.

"I'm not sure yet of my goal" whenever I lied I had the habit of blinking quite a lot, yet it wasn't noticed as it stopped with my next statement "I'm able to move forward because I'm not alone Robert, and I have to believe it. Right now Gabriel, Matthew, Maquiel, all of them fell on despair, if I don't help them, who will? I can't be waiting for them to come back and save me, I have to grow stronger and help them. I knew that I could do something for Yoshi and I let him meet you." I giggled a little bit, while I tried to keep my cool "In the end I'm very weak, but I have to do something at least."

Robert's eyes looked at me kind of annoyed; I wondered what I could have told him in order to annoy him. He pointed the chair that was in front of the couch and I sat there, while I was waiting for some kind of lecture.

"You are not weak…"

"Don't lie to me Robert, you said it yourself."

"… Your resolve is stronger than any of us." I stared at him as my eyes opened wide "Those who are a burden in a battle are not those who lack on power, but resolve. You've been fighting with us since all this started, and I'll be honest, I only saw you as the pacemaker and the tagalong, but I never saw your resolve to lack; no matter how much power you are missing, you have something more important than that, something none of us had." Robert smiled at me as he pointed to his chest "A strong heart and will."

"Are you telling me that I must trust in the power of love?"

"Of course not! You'd get killed. But I taught Judo and my most promising students where those who didn't lack of resolve. What I'm telling you is that if your resolve doesn't shake, nobody will be able to drown you down in despair. Gabriel, Matthew, Maquiel, I myself too, we all lacked of resolve when the showdown came… and we all sold ourselves of despair…" his voice became stale as a glimpse of a smile crossed his lips, like if he was considering something stupid "Do you think someone like me can repair the damage I've done?"

I stood up to jump towards Robert. I hugged him as a tear shed from my face. I was moved. Robert hugged me back and I felt his hands around my back.

"I'll take that as a yes."

* * *

It felt good. After three weeks of preparing me for the showdown it was finally over. Samus was shut for good, something that kind of hurt me and relieved me at the same time. I wasn't hearing her complaining and trying to stop me anymore, I was tired because I knew there were no words that could stop me from doing this. I breathed as usual, I opened my eyes to leave the darkness of unconsciousness and meet the world surrounding me. I felt as a newborn, fresh, strong, different, and special. I was lying down on a round soft bed in a quite big room. The windows showed the path to a lake, so we weren't on the city anymore. The room was made of wooden, there wasn't really much furniture, but there was some items I could not describe, unusual, that I never saw before in my life, with shapes so amazing that my eyes could barely recognize, like a sphere, a diamond and a square depending on the angle. Those objects were like alien technology, just that they were used by Pit. I still didn't understand what he did to me, but I surely felt it. I was stronger.

"Is it time?" I asked a little bit anxious "Is she coming down?"

"Not quite yet." Pit replied as he stared the garden through the window "First we must put your power to test."

"I can still shape shift, can I?"

"Of course you can." He replied almost immediately "You'll find your power suit improved."

"Where do you want me to test it?"

"I have an assignment for you." Pit said with a glimpse of malice and sorrow on his face "Robert was working under Lucario's care, but he seems to have run off. I need you to go and get him back."

"Is that all?" I asked confused "No big fights?"

"There's going to be a fight, and you came to wake up just in perfect timing for this assignment. Robert is not going to get back so easily, he is with Melanie."

I couldn't avoid smiling and turning my eyes aside; Melanie was able to finally stop Robert from becoming the monster he was becoming, but now the roles were inverted and I had to turn him into that monster again. A sad, low laugh escaped through my lips as I considered the mission. I had to do it, he was needed on Pit's side and after Palutena crossed my veins maybe she could give Robert's life back. What really bothered me was that Melanie was the enemy this time. I had almost no allies, and all the shape shifters were my enemies now. It was hard on me, but I was still desperate to get Matthew back.

"I can understand it's hard…"

"I'll do it." I replied before he could keep on his lecture "I'll show Melanie how things are to be done."

He could detect a glimpse of hesitation on my eyes, but he didn't doubt on sending me on this assignment, so he knew I was going to succeed. I got up from the bed as I headed to the window. I jumped through it and I ran forwards. It was midday, and I was far from the city. I took a deep breathe as I looked at Pit, asking if he could give me a ride.

"Could you?" I asked.

"My pleasure."

I knew he wouldn't come with me, he always had something else to do, either organizing his night stalkers for a battle, or maybe doing some preparations for me to become Palutena, but I didn't care, I only cared that it would let me rescue Matthew once and for all.

Pit was smart enough to bring me to the national stadium. There was no one here, not this day, and it was a great battlefield, a great rectangle soccer stadium to fight. I knew he would bring Robert and Melanie to this place too, or they would get to know that I was here somehow. I just closed my eyes and waited. I was tranquil, patient; I felt that the flow of time didn't matter anymore. I was truly different; my impatience seemed to be cured and I wasn't as hyperkinetic as I used to be. It seemed nostalgic those old characteristics on me.

I waited at least for three hours until I hear the main door to the stadium was opened.

I recognized from the distance that curly golden hair and that small thin teen shape of Melanie and along with her Link came running next to her. I stood up; Pit surely took his time to make them come this way, maybe because he knew Melanie wouldn't trust him. I wondered why Robert wasn't around, and if they could be stupid enough to leave Robert unprotected. Apparently they were.

Melanie's eyes showed me that she was hurt, it made me feel guilty, but my resolve didn't wavered, not at all; not even when I saw her walking towards me with the same hurt and betrayed expression that I gave to Matthew. There was truly nothing that would change my mind.

"I'm glad you came."

"How could we not?" Melanie said smiling "I'll take any chance to get you back."

"I can't let you do that."

"Just as I can't let you turn into Palutena's puppet." Melanie interrupted as her eyes became suddenly strong. Her resolve was made of iron now, it wasn't wavering like they were before I left "I know I'm weaker than you Maquiel, but I have to stop you. I don't hold a chance against you, but I must stop you."

"Why?"

"Because you are going to kill yourself! You truly trust Pit? He could have saved as a lot of agony from the beginning! But no! He had to wait for us to grow stronger to show up, only so he could use us! How is that ok?"

She wouldn't understand, not even if I dared to explained everything from head to toe, she wouldn't take it, and I understood it; it wasn't about being the right thing or not, it was about not losing me. She didn't want to lose any other person, and she was determined, I could read it in her eyes, to die before letting me go. It broke my heart thinking on my killing her, I didn't want that outcome to appear… but I could not deny how close it was.

"Really, Maquiel?" Link said faintly "Are you that much desperate that you can't go by yourself?"

I never shape shifted as fast as this time. It took them by surprise the speed. I almost hit Melanie's face, but Link was able to react; he took her waist and he jumped to the right. He drew his sword and he stopped my fist from coming down to Melanie's face.

"Do you really think you will stop me Link?"

"I can buy time at least."

He forced me to jump backwards as he sliced his sword in straights lines against me. The sword seemed to be moving awfully slow, but it was not that, I was too fast. None of the sword slides could reach me and I finally stopped it barehanded. The blade touched my hand, but it didn't pierce the power suit, it didn't even nick it. Link flinched as he jumped backwards and shoot and arrow on midair, which was destroyed by a pure punch against the arrow. Then Link threw some bombs around me to open a smoke curtain. He ran on the darkness of the smoke curtain and he slashed, trying pierce through my shoulder, but the blade was unable to cut through. Then I realized that the wind boomerang was coming for me at my back and I deflected it with a missile. I kicked Link's waist and then I saw Melanie coming on Zelda's shape out of nowhere to slap me. I avoided it and I made eye contact with her as I grabbed her arm.

"Where is Robert? Have you left him unprotected?"

"He is with Yoshi now." Melanie answered with a strong deep voice "He is not alone."

It made me kind of happy and kind of angered. I was debating if I either felt good for him to finally be able to make peaces with Yoshi or annoyed for having to force him to drop him once again. I pointed my cannon at her as her eyes glared at me. There was tension, but I knew that she wouldn't be able to really harm me.

I was so focused on Melanie that I didn't see Link coming from behind. Five bombs drove against me by the wind boomerang crashed on my back, but it only thrust me forward, it didn't even scratched the suit. Melanie got her chance to make a powerful impact on close distance and she made a Din's fire explode in my face. It blinded me for a moment, but it couldn't harm me, yet it was enough for her to get off my hands.

I pointed at her and shoot a full charged shoot in a second. I was impressed, I didn't charge it and it was shot as if I charged it for hours. Melanie used her Naryuu's love to try to deflect, but it could only defend her from the blast, the diamond was broken into pieces as she was sent backwards on a strong impulse wave. Link took the chance to trap me with boomerang. The powerful wind took me by surprise and Link attached bombs to his arrows and shoot three times hitting my suit as he pressed onwards in order to try to slice me in two with his sword; it did scratched the suit, but it didn't hurt at all. Although they managed to attack, no attack was really effective, I was no damaged at all, but that didn't seem to stop them.

Link still tried to slash me, maybe he was thinking that my suit would get eventually shabby from so many swords cuts, but he wasn't even able to connect any and he was thrown away too easily. Melanie was not even really trying; her magic, her hand to hand, or any trick she could think of was no match for me.

"I told you Melanie. You are weaker."

"At least my soul isn't wavering_._"

I didn't understand what she meant with that, but I didn't care. I was annoyed and I decided that I had to end this quickly.

It took me less than a second to shoot the Zero Laser. Melanie didn't see it coming and it trapped her whole body. I could hear her yelling with might as Link stared with great fear and concern her body. When the mist was cast away, a weak human body fell on the grass; it had several burning of second grades around her body.

"MELANIE!" Link shouted.

A second blast was released in order to hit Link, and he actually blocked it with his shield, which got broken into million pieces. The blast caught him, not as bad as it did with Melanie, but he was out of breath, full of bruises and burns, yet he stared at me with eyes of the victor.

"Do you think you can win?" I asked.

"I don't think I hold a chance_._" He replied faintly smiling "But giving it up it's no better than losing."

"Wrong choice, Link."

I was about to shoot once again when my body was thrust to the ground by a strong creature.

"Charizard!" Link shouted.

I could see that the great fire dragon was using his whole weight trying to contain me, but it was useless, I just rolled and forced him to fly backwards before I could shoot another Zero Laser. Then, from the sky, a thunderbolt crashed with my power suit, but it did nothing, it just bought time. The only thing that really kept me busy was the PK freeze from Lucas that froze my body. I stared at the smashers arriving to the field.

"Guys…" Melanie said faintly before she passed out.

"We made up our minds." Ash said smiling "We don't belong anywhere, not with Wolf, not with Pit, not any place on this world, but your side. We've come to help."

"Pika, pika!" Pikachu replied.

I broke through the ice and I stared at the Pokemon Trainer who prepared his pokeballs to fight.

"What is wrong with you?" he asked "Why are you attacking Melanie? Why are you so freaking strong?" He didn't wait for me to answer, he sent out Squirtle and Ivysaur "All those questions, can be answered later. Right now, the fight is on."

I shot the Zero Laser with no doubt, but they made to avoid it. Then Link crashed against me, using his whole will to move despite his burns, and he tried, once again, to stab me. He gave me no chance to defend myself, he thrust me backwards with all his might and threw as many bombs as he could and my body finally felt shaken and hurt, although the power suit received no damage. Pikachu jumped on mid air and he sent a thunderbolt that joined with Lucas PK thunder to make a great electric shock wave against my suit. Once again I felt shaken. Then Ivysaur grabbed my arms with his leaf whips, but I threw him away at once while Squirtle shell tried to knock me, but I hit the shell and I sent it miles backwards. Charizard fell from the sky and he tried to burn my power suit, but only got shot by a charged shoot. Then once again, when I tried to use my zero laser, Link stabbed his sword on my cannon. I yelled out of pain, but I was more surprised than hurt, how could he get to stab me? I could see that it was tiring him up, he could not keep up with his injuries any longer, he was already lacking of breathe, but he would fight to the end. I wanted to give it an end to this pointless fight and I was about to make it… through Samus final form. I was finally getting through it. But I wasn't able to use it. Through the sky I was attacked by Kirby's dragoon. Link was thrown away, the sword was released from my cannon and Kirby pushed me against a wall.

"What are you doing?" I asked annoyed as I pushed the machine back with my hands.

"What are you doing?" he asked. I was shocked by his words; not his words, but the fact that he actually spoke "Attacking Melanie so sudden…"

"Pit ordered me to!"

Kirby's eyes seemed puzzled, confused and angered. He drove the dragoon back; everyone stared at him confused, Link would have kept a close eye on him if he didn't faint. He was out of breathing, and he had to recover energy.

Kirby called the war star and he made a sign to Ash in order to get Melanie and Link on it. Ash got his Pokemons back on the Pokeball as Kirby got the dragoon near to them and far from me.

"I'll talk to Pit." He finally said "Until then, don't hurt Melanie."

He was very specific, he didn't say "don't hurt them", but "don't hurt Melanie", there was obviously something going on between them two. I felt relieved that I hadn't got to keep fighting Melanie. It was self evident that she would not be able to withstand this war. All of them left, including Kirby who took Ash, Lucas and Pikachu. The only thought that crossed my mind was "I have to end this quickly."


	12. The Fox and the Princess

**The fox and the princess [Let's fade to black]**

"Pit is going to pay." I said firmly. "Gulp…!"

It was rare for me to have Navi inside of my mouth while I was awake, most of the times I passed out before Link used her on me. It felt quite strange, but once she was on my system I felt much better as the skin regenerated faster and the cuts were closing up.

I stared at Ash who was leaving an exhausted Link on the couch.

"Thanks for coming back." I said smiling.

Ash smiled back and nodded.

"Why did you?" I asked immediately.

"There were many reasons." He said laughing a little bit "Starvation, guilt, living as vagrants… we didn't like that life, it's hard but we can't live on our own here, it took me time, but I needed it, it was a slap on the face. We didn't want to become Wolf puppets, so in the end the only place we could get back to…"

"… Was back here." I finished.

"This is the only real home we ever had." Lucas said shyly "We are here because we choose to, I wouldn't like to lose that, I've got used to it. We are different from what we were on the beginning."

"We belong here." Ash said determined "We know we can't live here forever, but we must at least fight to the end together. This is our place to be."

"Pika, Pika!"

"Thank you guys." I said with the impulse to start crying, but I held it.

"So now, you might explain us why mistress impulsiveness is on the top wanted list."

I sighed; it was kind of a pain start explaining everything that happened while they were not around, but Robert showed and spoke up so I wouldn't have to force my voice while recovering.

"She was told that if she sold herself to Palutena's bitches she could have his boyfriend back."

"How come you are back?" Ash asked suspicious.

"Long story short, I'm back with Yoshi."

They took a seat on the couch next to the one where Link fell asleep, while I tried to avoid start itching, the skin was recovering too fast not to feel anything.

"Why are you back with Yoshi?" Ash asked.

"He came back for me, after Lucario controlled me for a while…"

Ash interrupted him.

"You met Lucario?"

Robert's eyes were stern and serious as he analyzed Ash angered and desperate face.

"He has been over my shoulders for like four months."

Ash sighed strongly as he hit the couch with might.

"Damn it! I shouldn't have left."

"So Lucario's your lover or something?"

"He, Mewtwo, Pichu, Pikachu, Lucas and Ness were my family there." Ash said "One of the reasons why I left was because I fought Mewtwo twice."

"I see, makes sense." Robert said calmly "Well, sorry to carry the bad news, but Lucario is one of Pit's puppets and he is our enemy."

"Is Pit an enemy too?" Ash asked as he sighed again "Just great."

"You are the one who decided to come back."

"I know, I know!" he replied annoyed "It's just… hard, you know? You wouldn't like fighting your comrades and family, would you?"

"I guess."

There was a brief silence on the room. I stared at Kirby who was speechless as usual. I tried to speak up.

"Kirby, what can you tell us about Pit?"

But he remained in silence.

"We know you can talk."

He stared at me with cold eyes as he turned aside. He wasn't going to speak up; I didn't understand whose side he was, at difference from Robert who was trying to figure it out, Kirby already knew it, yet it seemed to bother him.

"How come Maquiel gave up so easily?" Lucas asked "I mean, we know that Pit was up to something, but she always seemed ready to say no."

"Your departure was a factor," Robert explained "and I was too. There were many circumstances that made this choice perfectly fitting for her, Pit left us unguarded so we could fall on despair and use us as puppets. That's what he did with me, and he is doing the same with Maquiel. He wants the perfect fighter under his control so that whatever he is plotting can go accord smoothly, initially with Matthew, now with Maquiel."

"Great deal," Ash said sighing "first we had Wolf, and now this guy? This is incredible bad luck! It's like we are the public enemies!"

"We are." I confirmed "We have to worry to fight Pit, Wolf and Ike's side off."

"Marvelous!" Ash said laughing a little "Our tasks are harder than ever! So what do you think we'll do leader?"

For an instance I thought he referred to Robert, but as soon as all the eyes were directed towards me I realized who he was calling leader. I gulped and I thought of refuting, but in a second thought I decided not to, it would be pointless and a waste of time to only hear a speech to raise my self steam. I sighed and then I started thinking about our next movement.

"…_!_"

It was like a thunder going across my mind at high speed, a sensation I never had before. I was staring at myself. I was on the house, it was like my body frozen and my eyes were removed and turned around to look at myself. My eyes were pitching black, a thing that only happened when I sensed larges amounts of energy.

I recovered my usual sight. I was no longer staring at myself, but to the yellow brick wall. I stood up, but I still had Navi inside my body, so I lost the balance while it started healing my knees and I almost fell off the floating floor, but Lucas grabbed me on perfect timing.

"We can wait until you recover, mistress Leader." Robert said smiling to me as Lucas arms helped me to stand up.

I felt good, surrounded by allies, no… surrounded by friends.

* * *

"There's nothing to worry about, this is a common assignment."

"I don't like her." He replied concerned and annoyed.

"She is just a child, Falco" I replied.

I considered how it could be so much trouble going to the city in order to get a job done, meeting Melanie and then bringing information and reports back. It wasn't even hard, it wasn't like I had to fight or spy, it was just going out to speak with a naïve girl that would surely let most of the details I needed fall of her mouth.

Ever since Matthew's mom, Sophie, arrived Falco had been overprotective on me, he stuck around me more than he ever done in the past, and Wolf would not let me see her no matter what. I wondered why they were so cautiously about that, but it really wasn't of much importance, it was just Falco that was becoming excessively protective around me, like if he lost an eye on me for a second he would lose me forever.

I shook my hand to say goodbye, while he returned all nervous to his room. I took an airwing and prepared to initialize the trip to Santiago. The data appeared on the airwing, destination Chile, August 16th, 3:00 P.M… I was ready to take off.

"Wait!" a voice said.

"I told you Falco, I'll be fine!"

But it wasn't Falco the one who came around, but Meta Knight.

"Oh, it's you. Hi."

"Yeah, hello." He said back while checking my face for something wrong. "Are you going back to the humans worlds, right? An assignment, I guess."

"As always."

"Please, take me there."

I frowned while I looked for something odd on Meta Knight's face, but there was no thing that could be telling me he was planning a betrayal or something, but it was so sudden and unexpected that I doubted.

"Why so?"

"I need to go there, I need to see him."

"Are you still so attached to Kirby?" I asked.

He nodded and then I could detect that her eyes were closing. It was hard to tell most of his emotions with that mask covering his face, but his eyes were always revealing a gasp of deep misery.

"Hop on."

Meta Knight jumped once and he got in the shotgun while I prepared to take off again. There was something wrong about all this, I could feel it in my guts, there was no wonder that since Sophie and Salaric arrived here and more specifically, since Sonic and Yoshi were extracted from Salaric's body things were getting intense, and yet Wolf was at ease, like always. I've only seen concern once, and that was when Matthew stabbed him on the chest four years ago, but since then I never saw doubt or concern. Somehow we were moving just as he plotted and there was nothing to do about it.

Then it came to my mind that all this was nothing, but a diversion. I had the feeling that they were hiding something from me, even mom. All of them seemed to be treating me as an equal, but in fact they were just trying to hold those strings around me. I looked at Meta Knight while piloting and I wondered if he could be part of vigilance or something. There was no way to guess.

We crossed the crimson red sky, it was always like that, an endless sunset that fell upon our sky in this world. We could not be found as we were not in their world, and this world was just meant to be a bridge that would be crossed. I considered what could be Wolf planning now.

"Here we go." I said as I increased the speed.

It was too fast to describe. As always the airwing crossed the two dimensions in a matter of seconds, I could barely tell when we were above castle siege and when we started being above Santiago's sky.

_She should detect me soon enough. _Melanie's skill were surely handy, as she could perceive souls she would most certainly detect me on the double. The airwing floated on the sky as the hatch opened and both I and Meta Knight jumped to the floor. It was a great fall, but it would make nothing, that's for sure.

We fell on middle of the street causing a great uproar. People succumbed to terror and they ran away as they used to when they were facing us.

"It's kind of annoying." I said "It's always the same, and they always fail to see how to react."

"Then let's go to somewhere where people can't bother."

We needed a space where people would not come, but there was no place on my mind to look for, only stores, building and an empty polluted pale blue sky. I sighed while I waited for something to happen, Meta Knight remained still too, despite he suggested to move, but any of us knew where to.

It was just a matter of minutes for them to arrive. From some miles of distance I recognize the shapes of a group of people coming towards us.

The first one I recognized was Melanie. Next to her there was Link. At her back followed Ash, Lucas and Pikachu.

"Where the hell is Maquiel?" Meta Knight asked.

I didn't get to see her on the group. It certainly felt wrong, what could happen to her so she wouldn't show up?

Melanie stared at me, while Meta Knight was looking for a missing one too; Kirby wasn't with them. He rushed towards them as he prepared to slice his sword towards Melanie, but Link stopped, as expected, Meta Knight's sword with his. Their eyes met and I was sure that Meta Knight's eyes must have been filled with impatience.

"Where's Kirby?" Meta Knight asked to Link while he jumped backwards.

Link did not answer; he kept his sword up high while he tried to read Meta Knight's movement. I stepped forward and I grabbed Meta Knight's hand to stop him.

"Wait a little longer." I suggested while I walked towards Melanie.

"So we meet again." Melanie said.

"Where's Maquiel?" I asked.

Melanie tried to hide the sadness on her eyes, but it was too obvious to hide. She was betrayed. It was weird, because if she was betrayed by Maquiel, shouldn't she become an ally of us? It made only sense that way, because the only reason to betray them that I came to think of was that she wanted to be with Matthew badly, but she would not certainly join Ike's side as they wanted to kill Matthew and Wolf instead. So, what side was she on? There was only our side to think about as a chance, but she wasn't. Unless…

The possibility made me flinch and I stepped backward. I stared at Melanie.

"She didn't die, did she?"

"No." Link replied frowning.

I sighed on relief, I was truly scared of that outcome, but it made no sense to think of her as part of Ike's faction. What would she do there? Then an idea came to my mind, was it this what Wolf wanted me to find out? Where Maquiel went to?

"I didn't come to fight." I said at once.

"Then shape shift." Ash commanded.

It wasn't something I liked to, but I agreed. Over my time with Wolf I managed to keep always at Fox's shape, I never shape shifted back to my human self. This was my first time in four years. I didn't even feel like a human any more, I felt like any usual smasher. As soon as I got a glimpse on my old self, the dark skin tone, the thin fingers, the tall legs, I could not avoid having the memory of my father coming across my mind. I despised that image, I didn't want it to keep coming to my mind, I felt the need to shape shift back to Fox's form at once, but I resisted, this was necessary.

Ash was surprised, he surely didn't think I would agree so fast to it, and I could read a nostalgic feeling in everybody's eyes.

"Ok, done." I said; my voice was deeper than what it used to be on Fox's shape "Now, will you tell me what happened to Maquiel?"

"Why?" Melanie asked serious "So you can run to your master and tell him everything you can get from us?"

She wasn't as naïve as she used to when we met a month ago, something terrible had to happen to destroy so much innocence; her eyes were different too, they were no longer carrying optimism and love, they were caring suffering and responsibility. My eyes suddenly became compassionated.

"What happened to you Melanie?"

My question caught her off guard and she hesitated. I wasn't any near as good as Matthew at reading expressions, but even I could tell that she fought Maquiel. I became worried.

"Why were you fighting her?"

_And what if Maquiel didn't betray Melanie, but… _ It was possible. By the posture, the eyes, the suffering, what if Melanie betrayed Maquiel? My eyes hardened as I took a fighting pose, but I didn't shape shift. Link stared at me; if I attacked on my human form he would mostly reject the attack easily. I knew he or anybody else would stop me, so I could only shape shift, yet I waited a little before doing so.

"You abandoned Maquiel, didn't you?"

Melanie was covered on rage, she was going towards me in order to punch me, but Link stopped her.

"She will become Palutena's vessel."

Everybody looked at Ash puzzled; probably they weren't expecting that he would be the one to reveal such information. And then it became clear to me what they were trying to do, they didn't want Pit to accomplish his plot. They were aware of it know and they knew they couldn't count on him anymore without being puppets… but not Maquiel, she surely betrayed them and went with Pit and thus she wasn't here. It seemed suspicious that Ash spit out information like that; I didn't know him at all, but he wasn't stupid, I know at much, why would he drop that kind of information?

I turned aside to see Meta Knight who was silently listening to us, processing information, but mostly still waiting for Kirby to show up.

I stared at Ash.

"Why did you just tell me that?"

"You asked."

"You know what I mean."

"I guess I saw no point on hiding it." He said smiling "It would be convenient if you tried to stop Maquiel. Either you succeed or she ripped your guts out."

Ash kept shut afterwards and Melanie spoke up.

"Tell this to my brother." She said firmly "The woman you love is about to give her life attempting to get you back."

I stared at her. I was ordered not to get into any fight, and I could tell that if I stayed any longer I would end being dragged to a fight, there was no doubt of it. I stepped backwards while staring at her, but Meta Knight was about to get into a fight no matter what, he wanted to get Kirby's attention. There was only one way to go.

"If you want to stay, stay." I said while I shape shifted and headed back to the airwing "I was ordered to get back as soon as I got information."

"I'll get back later."

"Don't let your guard off."

It wasn't likely for me to leave a comrade outnumbered, but I knew there was no way to make him go back to Wolf's hideout, beside I knew that he would rather die before losing this chance.

"Thank you, my friend."

I walked away, as he stayed behind.

* * *

I never saw that coming; Gabriel left Meta Knight behind. It was really unlike him, I never saw him doing something like that. And there was also that feeling of seeing him in his human shape, it made me feel nostalgia.

Meta Knight stared at me, there was no doubt I was his target, he tried to slice his sword against me. He must have known that Kirby's task is to protect me and thus he tried to lure him by attacking me, but he didn't move yet, he knew well that it would be suicide. He was staring at me, those eyes were patient, and yet excited with the idea of making Kirby appear. Ash stepped forward.

"Are you serious?" he asked "Because you know, no for nothing, but if you take one more step you'll be lying on a night table for who knows how much time."

"I have no intention to die yet." He replied without moving an inch, his eyes were still piercing mines "It's curious, we were informed we would not battle you any longer."

"Things changes." Ash replied "This is my side, I realized that, yet I wished there were no sides at all."

"Indeed, so do I."

His answer was, indeed, sincere. He didn't lie, I knew it, and he gave such a firm and determined answer that it just couldn't be a lie. I kept searching for my surroundings wondering if Kirby would eventually show up… or would he not because I was already protected?

"Stay back." I commanded.

I stepped forward and immediately Link stopped me; he wouldn't let me take such a risk, but I had to do it, I wanted to finally know why Kirby was protecting me, and maybe I could learn something useful from Meta Knight this way. His eyes were surprised as he saw me stepping forward.

Ash was about to move too in order to stop me, but I just faked to give up and then I threw Link backwards, crashing with Ash's body. Then I just made it to be in front of Meta Knight. He was as surprised as everyone else.

"You want to see Kirby, so do I." I said while I took his hand making the sword reach my neck "We both need answers."

"Melanie! Are you insane?" Ash asked.

"STOP IT RIGHT THERE!" Link yelled as he stood up and ran forwards in order to stop me.

But it was just what I needed. The warp star fell in the middle of me and Meta Knight dividing our space into two and almost breaking Meta Knight's Galaxia that flew backwards. His eyes were full of anger towards me, but he didn't talk, he just gave me ice cold eyes.

"I want answers." I said.

Kirby didn't reply, he wouldn't tell me anything, he wasn't going to tell me what Pit did to Maquiel, or why I had to be so protected, he just glared at me and then he stared at Meta Knight, how I judge was either too excited or too angered.

"Finally we meet, traitor."

Kirby did not answer.

"Even after all this time you don't want to talk. You're very interesting; I've always thought that, ever since we met."

Kirby remained in pure silence, just as he always used too. As he said he wasn't really talkative, he only did it when it was purely necessary and it was evident that this conversation might have been meaningless to him, the only thing he cared about was his duty. Protecting me.

"Over this girl?" Meta Knight asked pointing his finger at me "You left us over one human girl?"

There was no movement, I expected that he either answered or attacked, but he only remained looking at Meta Knight. I was at his back, so I couldn't really tell what he might be thinking, he didn't talk, his whole body was still and I could not see his eyes, but still I felt an ice cold sensation coming from him. When I first saw his soul I expected to be like a child's soul, cheerful, happy, full of hopes, but it was the same four years ago and now too. A soul covered on locks, feelings and emotions repressed in one big lock. Was Meta Knight trying to unlock it? Would he succeed?

"At least tell me why."

"Why?" Kirby finally answered coldly "You came all this way with Gabriel only to ask me why?"

It was a truly fast movement, I think none of us could follow it; Kirby was holding his sword and almost sliced Meta Knight into two. He managed to dodge, but his mask cracked a little bit next to his left eye. Kirby was as cold as before.

"Tell me why you are really here. You are in the way."

I hesitated about if I should help him or not, it didn't seem necessary and I knew Kirby was the hell of a strong guy. Meta Knight looked at him angrily while he prepared his sword to slash.

He headed towards Kirby and gave the first slash to start a combat, but Kirby jumped on the right timing and he became a stone that fell at high speed from mid air, still Meta Knight could avoid the impact by rolling rightwards. Kirby undid the stone form and rushed against Meta Knight to punch him, but he blocked the fist with the blade, making superficial cuts that didn't seem to affect Kirby at all. Then Meta Knight used his drill rush, which was stopped by Kirby's final cutter. The waves produced by the land of Kirby's blade on the ground were fairly stronger than what they were supposed to and stopped Meta Knight's drill rush, giving Kirby the chance to smash him with his hammer. He hit Meta Knight on the whole face and he was sent backwards with his mask almost broken. He touched it and he seemed annoyed by it. Then he glared at Kirby while taunting him to come.

_Why are they fighting? _I couldn't understand it myself yet, there was no substantial reason for them to fight, aside that they were from opposite sides, but this wasn't about sides, this was something else. Something was missing.

"How could you trade your friends for an unknown person?" Meta Knight asked angrily as his voice turned darker and deeper. "Over all my allies, I never trusted anyone as much as I trusted you…"

"So that's why you came." Kirby interrupted "You are trying to make me feel guilty; you want to take me back."

_Take me back. _I suddenly stopped caring about everyone else, I didn't know what their reactions were, but I was only concerned on those words. I wasn't staring at Meta Knight and Kirby any longer; I was staring at Maquiel and Matthew.

A cycle. It was a cycle that was meant to be endlessly repeated until the end of times, someone seeking to get another person back, even at the cost of his own soul. I stared at Meta Knight and I suddenly saw in his eyes the same sorrow and despair that used to be in mines.

I didn't know what to do, what to say, I was shocked by those words, and I probably would have done something if they kept fighting, but none of them moved. Meta Knight's eyes were filled with hatred and he walked away.

"We shall have our showdown Kirby, but I know it's not here, not now."

"How come?"

"You won't be fighting for real while protecting crap."

And so he left flying on the skies. Kirby could have stopped him and finished him off, but for some reason he didn't. He probably had issues with him that he wanted to solve on a full fledge battle.

I walked towards Kirby. He turned aside to look at me and my eyes were glaring at him.

"You left them for me, didn't you?"

He didn't answer.

"Don't play mute with me! Answer!"

"Yes, I did." He replied back.

"Why?"

"My past" he replied "it's not of your business."

Kirby went away running too fast for us to reach us. Why was I so important to him? Was Pit expecting me to fill a role too?


	13. We all heard you god

**We all heard you god**

"How are you feeling?"

That was a stupid question; my face was already telling that I couldn't feel any dizzier, my arms and legs shook like if I was having epilepsy, and my eyes were rolling with no control at all. Any thing that he made me drink was causing something terrible in me, but it stopped soon and then… it was different, it was so quiet and tranquil around my body, I even felt at peace. I breathed as I got up the bed. I think the only way I noticed that I wasn't Palutena's vessel yet was the fact that I had control of my body. I couldn't believe it, I even felt more powerful, and I felt that there were no boundaries around me anymore. I felt like going towards Wolf and kicking his ass.

Pit seemed pleased with what he saw and he did not longer waited for an answer.

The room was empty, probably so I could test my new powers, but Pit didn't ask me for a demonstration.

"Today is the day." He said with quite some excitement on his voice "We finally will have peace on Earth."

I really didn't care about what would happen from now on, all what I wanted to do was finish it quickly. I was sure that as soon we were about to call Palutena Melanie and company would crash on the party and fight me. I had no doubt of that, and no longer hesitation. If they appeared, I'd hurt them.

The ritual to call Palutena's soul could only be done in a place where souls rested, and that it was connected to the vessel, so it had to be in a place on Santiago as I never traveled farther until my last years.

"_Mom! Stop it!"_

I didn't know why, but I was having a flash back, suddenly I became a spectator to something that happened when I was a mere child.

"_You want her so bad?" It was my father's voice "Well, so do I, Rachel."_

"_You kidnapped her!" Mom replied as she pointed her gun on my father's forehead "Is this the way you want to take care of your daughter!"_

"_You took her away from my life!"_

"_Because you are unable to take care of her! Now, let her on the floor or I swear you Richard, I will point shoot you on the forehead."_

_I was left on the floor and I ran away from my father's arms and stayed next to my mother's legs. I was crying, but the tears that came first were from my mom. I heard the gun fire, but it wasn't lethal. She shot at his arms and legs, she shot four times and dad cried on pain, immobilized as my mom took me out of there. She saved the gun on her belt and then she ran away with me on her arms._

"_It's ok baby." She said "Your mother will always rescue."_

"Maquiel?"

Pit's voice made me come back to reality. I was unaware for how long I stayed looking towards the wall, I was trapped on my past for some minutes I was sure.

"Let's go Pit." I said.

* * *

"They are here!" I shouted.

Everyone got ready, we knew that there was no time to lose; this must have been the day Pit waited for so long, training her for four years, and then giving her the final adjustments so all the roads could lead to this. I was sure he wasn't going to miss any other day; I could feel it on my guts. I stared at Kirby before crossing the door.

"If you go there, we'll treat you as an enemy."

Just as expected, he didn't reply. Even after reveling he could talk, he never did it often, just when it seemed to be necessary.

Robert was the last one on coming out of the house and he closed the door with a fast movement and then he sped up to reach me.

"You are coming too?" I asked.

"She beat you up badly the other day, you'll need me there."

I halted for a second and everyone stopped as I stared at Robert.

"I swear to god Robert that if you…"

"I understand." He said calmly.

"I thought you didn't want to fight in a while."

"I can't sit there and wait to see how she beat you to a pulp," he finally said "so please let me come."

It was a fast glimpse all around him before I started running again as fast as I could, I was too worried about losing Maquiel that I couldn't start doubting about Robert, after all if we failed this time it was game over, Pit would have won and all our efforts would be on vain. Link also kept up with my pace as Ash, Lucas and Pikachu followed us from behind.

I don't remember any time that I have ran this fast, I was losing my breath, but I kept up until we reached the place.

Just as Pit would do, he somehow kept people from coming here. It was the beginning of nightfall on the graveyard. It was a bad location, but at least we were on an area that had no graves. Pit was preparing something; he was drawing something on the ground.

Maquiel stared at me with cold eyes.

"Don't stop Pit, I'll take'em on."

I knew there was no time to talk, she didn't give us any. She shape shifted and I shape shifted as fast as I could; I was able to dodge a punch that was throw towards me. She was too fast, I could barely dodge and then I felt that I was hit on my back. I grabbed her arm and then I made a Din's fire that crashed on her head, but her suit protected her. She was about to hit me, but she was thrust forward due to a bomb Link threw at her and then Ash sent out Charizard so he could do a seismic toss, but as soon as they were on the air Maquiel pointed her cannon towards Charizard's face and shot a lot of missiles in just a matter of seconds, almost like a gun machine. Charizard fell on the ground wounded as Ash called him back and Maquiel headed towards Ash who was unguarded, but she found herself stopped by Lucas who caught her on his PK freeze, yet she broke it right away, that movement was only meant to buy enough seconds to get Ash out of the way. Pikachu filled himself on thunderbolts and he tackled Maquiel, but she just smashed him with her hand and then her cannon started to release a flamethrower that was burning Pikachu.

Robert had already shape shifted and he tackled her in order to move her and then he kicked her upwards to start a mid air combat. He jumped and he flipped on air to hit her with his tail and then he tried to grab her with his tongue, but Maquiel took it before it could grab her and she threw Robert away, who tried to recover in mid air, as Link trapped her on his wind boomerang. He drew as many bombs as he could and he threw them to the tornado that it was formed by his boomerang and as soon as he filled it with bombs he shot an arrow to make it explode.

The explosion was so brutal that I guessed it would take her at least a minute to recover, so I headed towards Pit to stop him, but I made the wrong guess. Maquiel came out of the fire unscratched and she grabbed my head. Was she about to break my neck? I didn't know and Link didn't give her the chance; he somehow managed to pierce through her suit waist and he opened a little wound. Maquiel threw me towards Link as her suit regenerated automatically. Link trapped me on his arms right away and I stared at Maquiel.

"How do we beat that high speed healing?"

"_Easy,_" Robert said as he pumped up "_we don't give her the time to do so._"

He wasn't going to use his final smash yet, I could tell that. He waited for Maquiel to come after him and as soon as she did he dodged the attack. Then he shape shifted back to his human self. I didn't understand why he did it until I saw him stepping backwards; he had something on his pants belt. Maquiel came towards him and as it could be expected from any seventh Dan in Judo, he stopped her arm, then he made her roll with might and without releasing her elbow that he grabbed, with his left hand he grabbed the tube he had on his belt and a flash of light came through it and pierced a place that I detected as Maquiel's lung. I had no doubt that Robert had just used Vatra in order to pierce Maquiel. The wound was severe, but not lethal yet. Robert had probably thought it was the best way, inflicting a big injury and finish the battle, and then later we could heal her. But it wasn't the end. Maquiel grabbed Robert arm and she punched him on the face. It was such a hard hit that I could see that it broke Robert's nose and he spit blood on Maquiel's suit, which was… becoming black…

I was becoming afraid of it, the Varia suit was turning into another and more powerful suit. Maquiel didn't stop hitting Robert; she hit him on the waist, on his cheek, on his back and kicked his legs. Robert ended up throwing up blood, his inners were smashed too and his face was filled on red, crimson blood, as his eyes seemed about to pop out of him. I was already on my way to help him when Maquiel threw him away and then she took Vatra out of her lung. She headed towards me, but Link stopped Vatra with his Master Sword, but it wasn't long before the Varia suit turned into the Dark Suit and then Vatra broke the Master Sword into two pieces as it slashed Link from the shoulder to the hip.

"LINK!" I yelled as I grabbed his body.

Maquiel kicked my face and she sent me away from him as she shot in a matter of seconds' three charged shoots at high speed that caught Ash, Lucas and Pikachu who were coming in our assistance. They were all lying on the ground, severe injured. I couldn't hear Robert's breathe, Link was losing too much blood, Ash, Lucas and Pikachu had awful burnt all over their bodies and all of them passed out.

"We're ready to go." Pit announced.

Maquiel didn't even tried to finish us off; she didn't want that, she only did what was necessary to stop us. I stared at her, I couldn't let her go. A tear fell of my face and then I stood up as she walked forward.

"The battle isn't over!" I yelled.

"It was over far before it started." Maquiel stated.

"I can't move from now on Maquiel, so I need you to step on the circle."

"Come here and fight me!" I commanded as I ran towards her.

She just had to punch me in the chest to make me fall. I felt that my heart was about to give in, but it didn't, I just fell on my knees as I stared at how she was about to fully deliver her body to Palutena. No, I wouldn't have that. I had to do it, I had to grow up! I was so afraid of losing people that I never realized that it was that the reason why I never unleashed it.

"_Never give up Melanie," _Zelda said to me "_grasp every bit of my power and build hope!_"

I knew it wasn't enough, but it was my best shot. A pink aura surrounded me as a bow appeared on my left arm and my right hand started making a golden arrow. I would use my whole supernatural awareness in order to fill that arrow with my soul.

Maquiel was about to step in the circle Pit drew when she was halted.

"What?" she asked

It was Link's final smash. His sword was fixed and he ran in high speed to slash Maquiel, who was now trapped on the tri force. Link slashed with might the Dark Suit as his blood flew around at every movement, but he never stopped until he made the last hit. The last slash sent Maquiel away. She was losing her breathe as Link fell on the ground bleeding. Maquiel was moving too fast for me to shot, but luckily, someone stopped her. I saw at Robert, and his eyes were burning blue; I had no doubt of it, he was using the leftovers of Lucario's blood to stop Maquiel with aura.

This was my chance; they were fighting so I cold have this shot. I pointed at Maquiel, wondering where I should shot. I closed my eyes and I sensed it; a black spot on Maquiel's soul. The arrow was shot in high speed against Maquiel's head. It crossed her forehead, but it didn't split it into two, instead I could stare at how Maquiel's human self was coming from Samus' suit and how the blackness of the suit was leaving it. The power suit broke apart and I saw a Zero Suit Samus, whose eyes were completely black, but that then from those eyes it came smoke, leaving Samus as she used to be. Then she turned into a yellow aura that got back to Maquiel's body as the black smoke left on the air.

I didn't even realized when I shape shifted back to my human self, but I couldn't believe what I was seeing. I've done it. And I found a way to get my brother back. I was the one who could break his bond with Wolf. It was so exciting that I shed tears of happiness as I walked breathless towards Maquiel, I didn't even care when I realized that Kirby was beside Link healing him, I was at shock. Then I remembered that day.

"_I don't want to do this mommy."_

"_You have to, or your father will never rest on heaven."_

_It was too much for me, I was just a kid who lost her father on war zone and now I had to dig up a tomb with my mother. Although I never knew him well, I always wanted to have the chance to talk to him as Matthew did._

_It was a cold night on the graveyard. Staring at the lifeless body of my father with his heart ripped out was a strong scene that would not leave my mind forever. I understood why my mother took me her, but I never forgave her, I couldn't. She was so obsessed to talk with him that she didn't realize how much damage she was causing to me, she was a terrible mother, indeed, right back then she was thinking only in Matthew, not in me. His future was the only thing that mattered; I even felt that I was born to prevent it._

_When we had the corpse in front of us, mom and I joined our hands and just focused. His soul was away, it wasn't in his body any longer, which meant that he probably crossed his way to the other side, so we had to summon his spirit in order to talk to him. I was afraid, but soon I felt my father's warm hands on my shoulder._

"_Always beside you, my dear. You must not be afraid of losing anybody, you never will."_

_I didn't understand those words back then. As soon as we were finished we burnt the corpse. Matthew never knew about it, but it was the only way to prevent that his soul might be attached to someone else, but what we didn't know it was that it was already too late. It was bounded to someone else._

_We threw the dirt back on the tomb once we finished burning the corpse and we left it. Mom never told me what dad said to her, but I knew she was satisfied."_

"I'm not alone dad," I said while crying and shedding tears over Melanie's body "not anymore."


	14. Echoes

_**Author Note: **__As a writer I had to face a critical time on my writing (not only with my fan fics, but with my actual books) and as I finished this volume and some other works I realized that there was something terrible wrong, so I have to fix it right now. Thus, this story will be on hiatus and probably won't be uploaded until January as I'm giving my PSU (in order to enter in college), Christmas is coming and most of all, the fucking writer block along with the upcoming chapters fix to be done. Anyway, this chapter is good, and so you can read it. Enjoy and review! I hope I can bring something back before January, but until then, reed ya soon!_

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**Echoes**

_What did I do to you Samus? _

She wasn't answering, I knew that I was responsible for it; I had no doubt of it. I felt terrible; I went too far on recovering Matthew that I almost killed off Samus soul. We were both on a raft crossing an endless sea.

"Where are we?" I asked.

"We are in the place were your soul resides." She told me weakly "This Sea was used to be crossed by a great boat. It's the way you see life, you cross the obstacles and you will find what you are seeking, but over the years the despair turned the great boat into a tiny raft."

"I see…" I sighed, I must have really been desperate "I'm sorry Samus, I almost got you killed."

"As soon as Palutena crossed your veins it would have crushed me, so yeah, you should be sorry."

I didn't know what to say, nothing seemed enough to compensate her. The sky turned grey and it started to rain. The rain fell on our bodies with might as we stared at each other. She smiled, she didn't seem upset.

"I'm glad I met you." She said weakly.

"Don't talk as you are going to die," I asked "you are scaring me."

"I won't die, dumbass." she replied laughing "I'm just taking a break, be sure to use my powers responsible while I sleep, ok?"

"Can you truly trust me?"

"Do I have a choice?" she asked as she sighed "I know you are a sweet girl Maquiel, I lived with you all these years, you are just a bit naïve and reckless, but nobody is perfect. I want you to know Maquiel that I love you, you are like a sister to me, and I will bring Matthew back for you, but there's no way I'm going to let you lose yourself. So as soon as you get back, be sure to kick Pit's sorry ass."

"Count on it."

We shook our hands and then we used our last bit of strength to pull us together for a warm hug.

* * *

I snapped out with a slap. My face was completely wet over Melanie's tears. I could see that behind her there was Link, which upwards clothes were torn apart and I saw an awful scar from his shoulder to his hip. Robert's face was filled on blood, and his nose seemed pretty bad, but he breathed though.

"I guess an 'I'm sorry' won't be enough, will it?"

Melanie hugged me as she hit my shoulders with might. I sighed, I was happy that she managed to rescue me.

"I was truly wrong, you are mighty strong."

Melanie didn't say anything; she was whining a lot, her throat wasn't able to create any sounds.

"I'm back."

Now I was the one who was hugging Melanie back, but it was just because I saw Pit behind her. I was going to protect Melanie. I felt that Pit might be about to kill her or something, but he didn't do a thing. He just stared at Melanie with a smiley face, why? His plan didn't go according his expectations, it made no sense.

Everybody prepared to fight, but Pit didn't draw his halberd, and he didn't move either. He was just staring at Melanie.

"Now we can bring Matthew back."

"Yes, we will." I replied "But you are not a part of it."

"Then, who will take you to their world?" he asked as he saw my puzzled face "The reason why you never found them here, it's because they are on other world."

"Wasn't the subspace destroyed?" I asked.

"Who said it was the subspace?" Pit asked as he sighed "They are back."

"The Zero World?" Link asked shocked.

"Yes." Pit replied "The world were we all born."

"Why would Wolf…?"

"It's a hideout," Pit interrupted me "and it's not quite the same as the last time I was there. Wolf is not planning to stay there forever of course, but it's the only place where he can trap Palutena." He saw my shocked face "Yes, he knew since the beginning that I was aiming to turn Matthew on Palutena's vessel and he knew that as soon as I lost him I would be using you, so he spent all those years there, standing by, just to trap you there."

"You son of a bitch!" That yell was about to be mine, but Melanie shouted it first. She stood up and she slapped Pit "You'd let Maquiel get trapped there?"

"Of course not, Palutena wouldn't fall that easily, I wouldn't let that happen."

"That's not what I mean!" Melanie replied as she punched him on the face, but it did nothing "All this time you claimed to be helping us! But you only wanted to use us!"

"And in return you should use me." Pit said back "So I recommend you to get ready for the upcoming battles on Zero World and let me take you there."

"They won't let you." Kirby interrupted "They don't trust you and they have good reasons not to, so I'll take them there."

Pit seemed reluctant at first; he and Kirby stared at themselves as they were no longer on the same side, almost like they were having a stand off, but after some tense seconds, Pit finally replied.

"Alright." He said as he opened his wings "I'll leave you on charge."

Pit disappeared from our sight in a matter of seconds. I didn't trust him, and surely I didn't trust Kirby either, but he had a point. They were our only ticket to Zero World.

* * *

"So there's no trace of Salaric or Sophie?"

My question seemed to upset Melanie. Her eyes were hurt when she thought about the topic, she probably felt guilty for being unable to track them.

"Not in this world." both of us sighed as we drank tea "My best guess is that Wolf took them as hostages on Zero World."

I gulped and I left the empty coup on the table. The house was just as I remembered. I was out only for a couple of weeks and yet the winter white kitchen, the oven, the furniture and the refrigerator at the left and the table at the right felt like an old place I visited in a distant time. Robert was next to me eating as a beast, chewing bread at light speed. He stopped just for a minute to swallow and then he spoke up.

"We need to recover before jumping on it," he said "I usually would be the first on saying that there's no time to lose, but we got to be ready, the fights there will be living hell."

"This is my first chance to ask Robert." I said; he didn't let me finish, he knew what I wanted to ask.

"I was happily living out town, giving Judo classes until last May." He looked downwards in order to avoid eye contact as his legs started shaking with might "I took a flight to Japan in order to earn seventh Dan and succeed, yet when I got back…" he stopped, he didn't say what happened, I could feel that it was still too painful.

"If you don't wanna tell is alright." He looked at me surprised "I'll wait until you feel like telling me."

He smiled, he didn't see that coming. I myself had also hard issues I didn't want to share, so I understood if he didn't want to share it right back then, which was the only reason why I didn't press him.

"Thanks." He said sighing "Anyway, long story short, Wolf was involved in that incident and I wanted revenge, Lucario showed up, he explained about my powers, gave me blood, I became kind of addicted to it and the rest you know it. And about why I got back, it's because of Yoshi."

"Wow, that's one hell of a way to abstract the whole story."

"I don't want to remember it." He said and I saw in his eyes and in his voice a note of fear, anger and lust "You can't understand what is like to lose everything, so please don't ask why Maquiel. I'm back, isn't that what it counts?"

"I guess so…"

"I'm not betraying you or anything, not as long as I have Yoshi."

"I'm kind of concerned." Melanie said "Ever since we got you back you never said a word about the night stalkers, about Lucario or about the incident, and you always show yourself keeping it together, but are you really doing it? I don't want you to tell me what happened, but in order to trust you I need to know, are you truly ok?"

"I appreciate your concern," he said as he stood up "I am really ok, but you know I won't say a thing. Just let me be, and I will help you out; we can go back to what it used to be."

"We can't and you know it." I was talking for myself, it would never be the same after what I did "It can't be the same after what I did, thus I know you feel the same."

"I rather kill myself than reviving those memories in my mind."

He left the kitchen with no more answers. I felt terrible for him, we just wanted him to open himself to us, but we knew it wasn't possible. He was cold, his heart was deeply hurt and he wouldn't open it up to anybody. I wished that there could be a woman in the world that could love and be loved by Robert, someone able to reach to that ice cold heart. I didn't doubt about him, I knew he wasn't leaving us (for now at least), but the wound was too deep and he wasn't treating it.

"He'll open up someday," Melanie said "just give him time."

"How did Yoshi managed to convince him?"

"Beats me," Melanie said "at first I thought it was just the fact that he was back on Robert's body, but it can't be just that, there's got to be something deeper. I don't know what Yoshi told him or did, but he managed to keep Robert on our side."

"What do you think that happened to Salaric?" I felt that it was needed to change to that subject "Yoshi's soul was resting on Salaric's body… do you think Sonic as well…?"

"If he is free we should be aware of him." She replied immediately "We have to rescue them; them and Matthew."

"We will, but Robert is right, we need to have our smashers recovered before landing on Zero World."

Both of us drank some of the juice we had on the table. Then Melanie seemed to remember something.

"I almost forgot!"

She left the kitchen running as I stared at the digital watch on the table. August 17th, 15:30 P.M. While being with Pit I lost the track of time, I was out of the party for almost three weeks. I sighed as Melanie came back with his father's diary, an item I hadn't seen in almost two years.

"I thought you finished reading it."

"I did." She said "I read it six times from head to toe and I never found the encrypted messages he left."

"Is there something more about smashers?" I asked "Have you checked anything about the section were Wolf is?"

"I looked up to that more than anything in the whole diary." She replied as she turned the pages "as I was so obsessed about that I never realized that there was more into it than that. So yesterday, after we got back home, before going to sleep I start reading some random pages and I found a name and a date."

"Really?" I asked.

"Richard Dean Gilbert, August 23th, 2014."

I broke the glass of juice as my hand formed a fist and my eyes opened wide as I felt like throwing up. It was my father's name and the date he told me on my dream… and if it was more than a dream? Something like a flash forward?

"Maquiel!" Melanie yelled.

I snapped out and I realized that my hand was bleeding.

"Good lord!" she said as she left the kitchen once again "I'll bring the first aid kit!"

I didn't reply, my mind was still processing the information. Why did Matthew's father know about my father? Why did he write about him? And what about the date? My eyes were burning in confusion, as the memory came back again.

"_Where are you taking me daddy?" I asked with not idea of what was happening._

"_We are going to have some father-and-daughter quality time together, ok?"_

"_Didn't mom tell you not to come?"_

_He halted; we were on a car and he just parked around his place. I didn't realize at that time what his disturbed face meant, and I knew less about what he was about to do._

"_I'll show you something interesting."_

"You gotta be more careful!"

Those last words woke me up. Melanie was disinfecting the wound as she applied a bandage around my hand.

"Do you happen to know that Richard? It has your last name, maybe a relative?"

"My father."

There was a brief silence.

"I sense some issues." She said.

"I don't feel like talking about it."

She didn't reply, she just gave me a sad look as she finished the bandage. I sighed as I picked the diary on the page Melanie wrote the encrypted message. Below every letter there was a number, which maybe was the way she figured out the message.

"I don't know anything about the future." She said "I mean, I can see it at times, yet I don't know what to do with my life."

I was listening, and I empathized with her; I didn't know what I would do either once everything ended.

"I never thought about a career path, and I sense that's no longer an option after the whole crisis with the smashers; I love Link, yet once this war ends I can't assure that I can stay with him, all what I want to do… is to show that I'm capable, dependable…" her eyes turned full of sorrow "Once we get Matthew back I don't know what use life has, my task, after all, was always to avoid his horrible fate that came to happen, and now when I finally bring him back, will finally my mother be proud of me? Will finally my father comes to recognize that I'm as good as Matthew?"

"Melanie…"

"My whole life has been about that." She said while her eye trembled "The only one who has always recognized me is Matthew, and I'm just… his shadow, even if I save him, mom will only shed tears of joy for him… I always knew that they loved them more than me."

"That's…!"

"So I know about issues with parents, Maquiel." I saw where she was going "I know what it is like that they make you suffer, and it sucks, it fucks your mind for a life time. I just want to know that, just as I shared this with you, you can tell me."

"And I will." I assured "But not now. It still hurts…"

"It will always hurt Maquiel."

She was right about that. It was sadly true; I would never get off my mind or heart what my father did while he kidnapped me, those images printed on my brain for a life time, a scar that would follow me to the grave. I felt like puking, most of the characteristics of my personality were due to that scar, the fact that I wanted to be able to defend myself, the fact that at times I acted more like a guy than a girl, and it was because of him that I wanted to kill of all those bastards like him. The only bright figure there was my mother, the hero I wanted to become.

Melanie noticed my sad gaze and then she smiles as she took my hands.

"Sorry, I ruined the mood." She said tranquil "We should be happy about the good news, and not be sad about the past. What's done is done, so let's live the present. What do you want to do now?"

"I'd like to go to my place for a while."

Melanie nodded; I noticed that there was an impatient Link waiting next to the door, he surely wanted to talk with Melanie, so I just walked off smiling. Things finally started to look normal again on this house, and now with Melanie's new power we surely would go back to the times when Matthew was around, maybe we could even get Gabriel back and then… how the story would end? As I crossed the yard that thought consumed my thoughts, I walked forward without really looking at the path in front of me, my legs were heading me to my place, but I couldn't really tell what was around me, because I was too happy thinking about getting Matthew back and fighting once again, the five of us as a cliché anime or movie, when the five heroes finally comes back together and defeat the ultimate evil. I let those thoughts wipe out the turbulent past that was chasing me.

While walking in the streets I was so into my thoughts that I didn't notice when I bumped against a guy. He fell and I almost stomped on his crouch.

"I'm sorry." I said as I helped him to stand up "I should've been careful."

"It's alright." He said tranquil. I was in a kind of shock, his face seemed familiar to me "Wow, you must have fallen from skies, because beauties like you are not seen often in land."

"I've heard better flirts," I said laughing, but it was kind of cruel though "also I'm kind of on a relationship."

He sighed as he rubbed his oil curly hair showing embarrassment. He was kind of tall, he had school outfit, which meant he was younger than me, probably 16 years old, a thin face, muscular body and deep dark brown eyes. They seemed kind of dazzling at sun light.

"Sorry," he said also laughing "I thought destiny had something to do about it."

Destiny… I grew to hate that word almost more than everything, after all I liked to think everything was a chain of choices, we made our own future based on our choices, and it was not like someone wrote down all of this.

"Isaac, nice to meet you."

I felt sort for him, so naïve… I just couldn't avoid stretching his hand.

"Maquiel."

"May we meet in another life, a one in which we can go out."

"Sure… I guess."

It was quite a strange conversation. I wondered if he might have been one of Wolf's human employs, yet it seemed like any usual boy, probably in college, bragging about his handsome face and body, yet he seemed quite shy, as Matthew used to be before he became Mario. He walked around and he gave me a last glimpse with his blue eyes as his golden straight hair was stretched by the wind. I felt somewhat attracted, yet it didn't matter, I wouldn't see him again in my life. I walked towards my house as I dialed a number on the cell phone.

"Sarah, it's me." I said while walking back home.

"Maquiel!" she replied happily "It's been months!"

"Yeah, I'm going to our place now… I need to find something."

"What?"

"Is Peter home?"

"No, he is not."

"Great… then get mom to the phone."

And so she did. It took no longer than a couple of seconds.

"Thank god I hear about you Macie!" it had been quite a while since anybody called me like that, it felt so… right "Are you safe?"

"Yes, I'm." I replied happily "I don't have to ask there, you have all under control."

"As always."

We both laughed; it was so nice hearing my mother's voice, it remained me why I was fighting for, after all she was heroine just like I was.

"I know it's the best for Sarah and you if we stay away" she started saying "yet, if you need anything."

"Mom…" it was going to be hard "I need to know where Richard hid his will."


	15. Avenger's hollow

_**Author Note: **__After a well deserved break from writing, I just finished Smash X Revolution! Yahoo! Now I'm starting the end of the Smash X Series with Smash X Extinction, which will be the shortest volume with only 16 chapters. Who'll be Smash X Extinction's main character? That I will say on the last chapter of this volume =D. This chapter is quite long and is divided in Meta Knight's POV, Maquiel's and Matthew's. I sincerely hope (as always) you enjoy and review!_

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**Avenger's hollow**

"I want to see my son."

She was being hard, she wouldn't eat, she wouldn't drink water, and she wouldn't sleep. She was certainly punishing her son for all this, separating her from his husband, leaving her alone, letting strangers take care of her child. Her eyes were vibrant, full of life and I was glad that now I had to take care of her instead of Anna. Sophie was always full of hopes, her eyes were strong and I could feel that feeling going towards my body. I felt like crying, it had been so long since I felt hope that even feeling it in somebody else's was enough.

I walked forward in order to get near of her and I grabbed her hands.

"You probably won't understand why, but I want to thank you." I said honestly as her eyes stared at me puzzled "I know you want to see your son, I know that you are angry at us, that you might even hate me, and despite all of that I still thank you for being here."

"It's not like I chose it."

"I know." I said "But you exist, you are here, that's all that matters. You don't need to understand me, just please… accept my appreciation."

"Then you are welcome." She said sighing. "Would you please tell Wolf that I'd like to see my son?"

"Indeed, I will."

"Thank you."

I felt bad for her. Her golden hairs were now all dusty and seemed like cupper, her face was thinner, her eyes were tired, she wasn't going to let herself be ok because she was punishing her son, forcing him to see how his change affected his mother.

When I got out of the room I sighed; I felt a bizarre feeling around me, I never felt this for any woman… How much time have I taken care of her? Had it been two or three weeks since then? And every time I saw her I felt relieved, seeing how even in the most hopeless situation her eyes still were shinning brightly with hope. I loved it, but did I love her? It would be so weird! Was it the feeling that she made me feel the thing I was in love with? Or was it her?

_It can't be her_. I thought. _She's a beautiful human, married to the man of her dreams and I'm nothing but a mere bubble gum with human's feelings. _And yet my heart beat every time I saw her. Yes, I had a heart somewhere inside me, the heart that made my eyes glow, a glow hid by the mask I always wore and that I'd never take off.

The flow of thoughts was interrupted by that weird bad feeling that I had every time _she _was around, but how come? She couldn't be out of here cage, Wolf wouldn't let her, she herself wouldn't get out of it, if Gabriel saw her… but yet there she was, standing still in front of me, making me sweet as my body paralyzed in terror. If she had some kind of skill it was this, to leave me completely useless before her presence; I was unable to move, unable to think right, I couldn't either escape or talk. Her light brown eyes glowed with an evil glimpse as she opened the door to Sophie's room. I followed her.

She gave a quick look to the room, it probably had too much light for Anna as she was used to the darkness of a windowless room, and she seemed blinded by it. The windows emitted a powerful glow of sunlight that slightly burst on Sophie. It was like staring at light and darkness.

While Sophie lay down on the bed, Anna took a seat on the chair next to her.

"So you are Matthew's mother." She said with her damn creepy voice, and yet she didn't seem to upset Sophie "I'm Gabriel's mother."

"Have you met him?" Sophie asked.

"Gabriel and Wolf yes, but if you are asking about your child, I had no chance yet. Wolf is very overprotective with him; he doesn't let anything get near him."

"Sounds just like his father," Sophie said "I always knew the truth behind him, I knew who he was, and so I wished that I could finish him off before all this happened. I'm a terrible mother, am I not?"

Anna seemed upset about her, Sophie's eyes were strong and they seemed to be blaming Anna for something. Anna was starting to get angry at her, like if it was a competition or something. I myself would have liked to pierce Anna's chest with Galaxia, but I wasn't able to, I was intoxicated by her weird skill.

"Yes, you certainly didn't protect your son like I did." She said self consented "I was able to sell my life, my happiness and all my possessions only to see him alive other day."

"So sad…"

"It is, isn't it?" she complained "Of course Wolf treats me well, he offers me everything I could possible want, but…"

Sophie made her shut up just by looking at her. Her eyes were showing both anger and pity, they were just so filled in sorrow. I felt like rubbing her face, but my body was still unable to move.

Anna stood up angrily.

"What? What does that face means?"

"You didn't protect your son. You sold him because of your fear."

"Watch your words."

"I'm happy… I may have made an awful work as a mother, I may have forgotten to show Melanie enough love, I may have been hard in her, and push Matthew to hard, but at least I didn't sell their lives only to see them unhappy everyday."

I was in panic. My body was unable to move even when Anna drew a pistol from her belt and pointed it towards Sophie's head; a killing shoot. I tried to move, but it was pointless, Anna's skill wasn't letting me to. I was about to let tears fall.

"At the very least, it's my son the one ruling on that bestial body, who is ruling your son's body?"

It happened too fast. Sophie moved too quickly.

The sound of a gun fire filled the entire room leaving one dead body on the floor bleeding. The blood was like a river covering the floor and flooding until it reached my legs. Sophie had taken the gun with her hand and then she pointed it towards Anna's neck. She was no longer alive, she was dead. Dead. Dead!

I felt relief, I smiled and it was hidden only by my mask. Sophie was next to me breathing rather fast, scared as hell as she fell on the bed.

"I killed a human being."

I snapped out of my happiness and I ran forwards. I took Sophie's left hand.

"Let's get out of here."

"I… I killed…"

"Please, Sophie!" I asked as I pushed her backwards. "Please."

I took her hand and I pushed her forwards; she followed me while a softly whining came from her throat, too soft to be heard by anyone, but me. She didn't understand what I was doing and I didn't really care, all what I wanted was to put her out of the crime scene, I was afraid of what Wolf might do to her. I gulped as I entered in the basement. I closed the door behind us and told Sophie to keep it quiet. She sat on the floor and she just cried as low as she could to avoid being detected. I breathed heavily and asked myself what I was doing. I didn't really know anymore, but once Gabriel found out about her mother, things would get ugly.

* * *

"I didn't think it'd be that simple."

Zero World was a database artificial place made by computer and brought to life by recreating elements of the Earth there. The way to get there was for us to travel through internet to the database world to reach something alike the subspace. The Zero World should be alike that, at least people made it that way.

Kirby would take us there as he knew the way, but we didn't really need him at all, after our entire mean to get there was Link's ocarina. Once he played it he could take us all to the Zero World like he did four years ago when we first met him. He and Ganondorf were the only smashers, excepting Wolf, which had a mean to crossover whenever they wanted. The ocarina was a mean of transportation that could transfer our particles and recreate them on Zero World, just like teleportation. If we just knew some weeks ago we would have saved a lot of time and suffering (I even more pissed at Pit for that), yet I was sure that this time our resolve was strong enough to withstand what came next. The only one I was scared of was Robert; I didn't know what was he aiming to, what was his purpose, the only thing he told us about was that "something" happened and he wanted revenge, but was that really it? Was he going there to kill Matthew? No, he wasn't, even I could tell, and there was Yoshi there… yet I couldn't stop being anxious about.

Melanie felt my anxiety and she put her soft hand on my shoulder in order to calm me down. I sighed as I looked at her and I smiled. This time we knew how to make him go back.

"You'll travel the same way you got in the subspace four years ago." Pit explained annoyed.

He was pissed off because he wasn't going. Lucas and Pikachu would stay to keep an eye on him; we knew it wasn't enough to stop him, but at least they could spy on him a little by the time we get back.

Kirby wasn't saying a word, he just waited for the instructions to be over and take us there.

"As soon as Link's start playing the ocarina Kirby will guide you; the room will be filled with mist and you must follow Kirby's past; I'd recommend you to shape shift to avoid getting lost. Just as you traveled to the subspace you'll be turned into flashes of light, but the difference is that this time you'll be conscious, so you must not lose track of Kirby."

"How did Lex, Sophie and Salaric made it there?" I asked that out of curiosity "They had no ocarina."

"Lex, obviously, didn't relay on an ocarina." Pit replied "Japan has amazing machinery; they just spread his electrons, protons and neutrons to travel over there and joined every single particle once he was there, just as the ocarina does. Wolf did the same on Sophie and Salaric; he has a lot of money, so the machinery should not be a trouble to get."

"So we must be all together in order to get back." Robert commented "If not, only some of us would get back, am I right?"

"I think we should focus in getting there first." Pit replied "I'll say it once again; you must follow Kirby to the right direction or you can get lost on the intercommunication system."

"And never get back." Kirby added.

I sighed. For some reason there was always had to be an obstacle. I blinked a couple of times, I stretched and then I took a heavy breathe.

"I'm ready."

Everybody nodded and it started. Robert, Melanie and I shape shifted; it was a weird sensation when Link played the ocarina and the mist filled the room. I couldn't see any of my surrounding, I barely could see someone else, but I could feel it and my whole body was glowing in yellow aura, just as Robert's on green and Melanie's on pink. Then we lost corporal form. I don't know how to describe the feeling; I never noticed when I left the room and started traveling, but I felt a lot of freedom, like if my body was an obstacle to finally fly through the whole universe, I felt like I could explore the whole world in two seconds without any need. I had no longer hunger, thirst, I couldn't feel tired, sleepy, or anything, I just could feel comfort traveling around informatics. I almost got lost while we traveled; it was really hard because beneath us there was just shinning lights and I didn't really know which one was Kirby any more. But I got there.

I couldn't tell when or how I got there, but I was there. Alone.

I looked right and left, above and below, but there was no one, but me standing in front of the gates of Siege Castle. Did I make it there? Was I on the right place or did I enter someone's Smash Brother's save file? I hoped that I really made it there and as there was no really any option I ran forward. I hoped to find someone inside, to know that everybody made it there safely. I opened the gate.

* * *

"She's here."

I knew it would happen eventually; Pit wouldn't leave things be. And I didn't know yet if she was Palutena's vessel or not, but I knew that either way we were going to fight. It was the fatidic lovers struggle, only meant to end in tragedy. I wanted to lose myself so that my feelings wouldn't get in the way around the battle.

I got through the door of my room. The castle was huge and the enemy was on its way. They all made it here, they were split, but they were all here. And I could only welcome them as enemies.

I walked through the rock wall corridor as my eyes closed, trying to prepare for the battle, to prepare my heart to kill.

"Mom, I came to see you."

But I didn't find her; instead I found Anna's corpse lying on the ground bleeding. The whole rock floor was covered in crimson liquid, and it was drying leaving a dark tone on the blood. I ran towards her and touched the neck. She was definitely dead; I didn't even need to touch her: her throat was pierced by a bullet. I knew that my mother could take a pistol away from a person and shoot, but I didn't see this coming, after all she swore that she would never kill a human being. Now she was like me, and maybe she did it for survival, but there was no doubt that Gabriel would find out who did it and kill her. I felt puzzled, was there a way for me to protect her? There would have if Gabriel didn't just came across the corridor and saw me with her mother's corpse.

"Who did it?" He asked in cold voice as he got near.

His face was completely paralyzed, his mussels could not move, the eyes were opened wide, the snout would not open as he took the corpse of her mother in the arms. He hugged it and then tears came from his eyes as his body shook, but he made no sound, he just moved, everything moved, but his face that only shed tears. It somehow scared me, the kind of reaction he was having was bizarre. And then his snout seemed to form a sad and creepy smile.

"So in the end it had to be this way." He said "You left me with no family."

I didn't know if he was talking to me or to his mother, but either way he was too shocked to act against me; I couldn't see how he was keeping it together not to cry out loud, he was only shedding tears and it seemed that he would shed blood from his eyes soon. He left his mother corpse in the floor and he dried his eyes. Then he looked at me.

"I know it wasn't you, she was killed by a gun shot." He said "All that I ask is that you let me be. Are there intruders?"

"Yes."

"Then let me discharge my anger on them."

And so he went. He didn't ask for the killer, maybe he didn't care right know, all that he felt was an outgrowing anger and despair, I could feel it. I was actually scared; it was something I hadn't felt in a really long time. I thought of a way of avoiding Gabriel killing my mother, but before it came to be complete, Mewtwo interrupted me.

"Ike's party is coming as well."

"They waited until Maquiel's party came so that they could double strike us," I thought out loud "that way it'd be easier. Damn it!"

"Ganondorf is coming as well."

"Of course he is, he has the ocarina." I said sighing "You take on the Pokemon Trainer." I commanded "Marth is going to face Link, you tell Meta Knight to face Kirby, and I'm going to intercept Melanie and Maquiel; have Snake prepare an attack party to face Ike's, but tell him to also organize a group to be keeping an eye on our defenses, the Night Stalkers might be on their way."

"War front is opening."

"Indeed." I said as I stared for the last time Anna's corpse.

"What happened to her?"

"My mother killed her." I replied and hopefully I didn't receive any reply or question back "I'm going to get Falco now, if we want Gabriel to stay on our side, he will have no option but to eat Anna's heart while he still can. Make sure the zone is ready."

"Got it."

Mewtwo left ready to act, and as he left I could feel the annoying sensation he held, he didn't like that guy, but if someone could build up a defense party and prepare everyone for combat, it's him, that's why Wolf got him in stock for this situation. I gulped as I headed towards combat. War has finally arrived.


	16. Broken lights

**Broken**** lights**

**

* * *

**

_As stars shines,_

_Some of them die,_

_Their agony is not witnessed by us,_

_We don't even feel them pass by,_

_We are carrying on our wayward,_

_Ignoring them afterwards._

_

* * *

_

"Link!" I yelled "Link! Where are you?"

I expected to get separated from the rest of the group, but Link was just so attached to the flow of my soul that I didn't expected that we got separated; I just hoped that everyone made it to Siege Castle. I could tell I was on the right place to being with, I could finally sense mom's, Salaric's and Matthew's soul around, along with thousands of them, some unknown, some of the smashers I've met all along.

I walked forward; the sun was hitting hard in a vibrant crimson sky that covered the whole surroundings. I wasn't precisely in front of the gates, but I could snake in by crawling in some air conduct it had around the wall. It was better if I went on my human form as I was smaller than Zelda, although it meant to go unprotected. I crawled towards the end; despite I didn't know where I was heading. I had little space to move in and I felt a little bit of claustrophobia while crawling, yet I didn't stop. I crawled faster and faster trying to break into an end soon, until I was able to find some kind of hatch that would, hopefully, lead me to the end of this small maze. I kicked it and it opened. Then I let myself fall on the rock ground. I was on my knees, I gave a quick glimpse to both sides and then I ran. I didn't know who I wanted to meet first, my mom or Matthew; probably mom, I had been sick worried about her.

I tried to keep my steps quiet, but I couldn't avoid keep speeding up as anxiety took over me. In my eyes shone the memories of the time when we traveled around the subspace. It happened so long and it felt like it happened just yesterday. I laughed silently as I moved forward. I was now in a wider maze.

I sighed as I tried to think which corridor would lead me to the right direction, but I just couldn't see it, so I decided to start feeling it.

I took all the roads that would lead me to mom… she was with Meta Knight, so I deduced she might be in troubles. As I was moving forwards Zelda gave me a warning.

"_Don't go there!" _She yelled "_Ganondorf is waiting for you!_"

She recognized the soul I saw on the following room. It was the path to the stairs and the basement, first I had to go through this room, a wasted empty room that I assumed it might be used as a battlefield for training.

I gulped. Ganondorf was there; since the whole situation started with the smashers, we heard his name countless time and we never got to see him. Now he was there waiting for me, why? Was it because of Zelda? Most probably, but I doubt it was just it. I felt the rush to go in there and find out who he was now, but I bit my tongue and decided to avoid unnecessary fights and so I turned to the right searching for some way to get to the basement without taking the stairs next to the room in front of me. I could make it, but I had no time to consider. There were already hands holding tightly my waist and covering my mouth.

"Been a while, hasn't been?"

It was Snake's voice; I was 99% positive that he was about to break my neck, and he would have no trouble at all doing it. I tried to bite his hand, but he barely reacted to my teeth pressure, even when I felt the blood coming from his hands. I didn't want to end like this. He just was heading me somewhere; I tried to free myself, but he wouldn't let me, he was physically stronger than me. He opened the door where Ganondorf was waiting for me.

As I detected, there was no single object there, an empty room of wooden floor and walls, just like a Judo dojo- probably Matthew's touch. Ganondorf was in the middle of the room smirking as Snake passed by with a grenade on his hands.

"Get out of the way!" He commanded.

He probably didn't know that Ganondorf was waiting for me here; he probably wanted to deliver me to my brother. My heart beat fast as I wondered what would happen. If they started fighting then it'd be my chance to escape and rescue mom, but nothing happened, they stayed still waiting for the other to react.

"Who is she?" Ganondorf asked "Melanie or Maquiel?"

So he didn't know how I looked like. Snake's answer might be the lead out or my imminent death, although I didn't know how he'd react to either answer anyway.

"Maquiel." He lied "I need to take her to lord Wolf, so don't interfere."

"And if I do?"

"You don't wanna." He replied back.

"I'm your enemy, why should I let you go?" Ganondorf asked.

"Because this is not the woman you are looking for." Snake replied "Despite your history with Zelda, you should focus on what you came for, shouldn't ya?"

"So in order to avoid conflict with me, you'd deliver me to what I'm seeking, am I right?"

I didn't understand it at all, why was Snake lying? Was he trying to protect me from him? And both Zelda and I wondered why he wasn't interested on Zelda at all, also we wondered what could he has been doing over these four years? My mouth stayed shut by Snake's trembling hand that slowly became calm as he pushed me forward. Then Ganondorf seemed about to move and Snake drew a gun which was pointed to my head.

"On your knees or I will kill her!"

I watched at how Ganondorf stayed idle on the empty room, he seemed to start kneeling before Snake until I heard Snake's mouth coughing blood. It was too fast to realize when it happened, but Ganondorf hands had just ripped over Snake's hips. Snake released me from his hands as I jumped forward. As soon as I turned around I could see a bleeding to death Snake mumbling on the floor, he was awfully hurt, and he seemed about to die.

"I can't die here…" he whispered "not until I get Samus back…"

Ganondorf stomped on his head and Snake threw up blood.

"Stop it!" I yelled "He can't move! You won already! Why must you hurt him further?"

"Because I'm evil, that's why." He said "Don't worry Snake, you're not the first person I betrayed, and you won't be the last one."

"I did… everything you said…"

"And so you are no longer necessary." He said as his feet pushed his face farther on the ground, Snake yelled faintly as his voice became to get lost "So long, dear puppet."

I just couldn't take it; I ran forward and I tackled him in order to push him away from Snake. His injuries were bad, truly bad and I had no mean to treat him, probably I'd watch him die, but I wouldn't let him torture him, my eyes just couldn't stand it.

"Isn't he your enemy as well?"

"He might be," I replied "but I have no intention of tolerate cruelty."

"Foolish girl" he replied laughing "and foolish boy who thought he could deceive me, after all your name and Zelda's were written since your birth?"

"What do you mean?"

I knew if he wasn't attacking he didn't mean to kill me, then was he aiming to confuse me in order to use me? All I could do was buy some time, I could tell he was strong, and if he kept talking then I could come to catch a blind spot in order to win.

"Do you think everything happens randomly?" he asked "No, it doesn't. Since the very beginning the whole story of the shape shifters was already written by an author who wanted to express his soul on his creation. That author is what you might call god, and in this context the author may be just nearer to this world than what you think."

"Tell me about this god of yours."

I was staring closely at Ganondorf, watching every move, waiting for a split second chance.

"Since their creation, Tabuu and Palutena have been writing this whole set up so they could express on this story, why Tabuu and Palutena were not hold by humans as they were meant to? Because their creation implies more than that; you were never born, your memories are only the manifestation of the lines of this author we seek to take down."

"Take down?"

"We, the warriors of sunset, will call forth Tabuu and take his crown to us. That's why we need you Melanie, the god itself blessed you with the power to see, separate and destroy souls, so I won't harm you, but I shall take you with me."

"So that's all?" I didn't know how keep up the conversation any longer, he was just a crazy guy obsessed with fate, what should I answer? "You want to bring Tabuu down?"

"All over these years I've been stayed still, gathering warriors to fight for me, Ike, Bowser, any smasher who is bored of this endless nonsense and endless fight is with me, their hearts belong to me, and so you and Zelda will, Melanie, wherever you want it or not, because until we get Tabuu's crown your destiny is tied to us, as Matthew's was to Wolf."

"Matthew's fate was intertwined with Mario!" I replied.

I didn't wait any longer, I rushed to the punch his face, but as expected he was faster than that. He dodged me and then kicked Snake's body which hit a wall and left it red with his blood as his hand turned back to hit me with black aura. The fist reached my face and I was pulled backwards by it. Before he could smash me again I covered myself with Naryuu's love and the diamond caught him off guard, giving me the perfect chance to throw him away with Din's fire. However, he wasn't hurt at all, I'd take me a lot of time to beat this guy, I could tell it and so I'd be cautious and reserve my final smash as the final blow.

He lost no time and he dashed towards me in order to use his iron shoulder; I've managed to dodge by using Farore's wind, which teleported me to the other side of the empty room so I could throw another Din's fire, which didn't hurt much anyway.

"Are you done toying around Melanie?" Ganondorf asked.

I didn't realize when his hands reached my neck, but I felt agony as my breath stopped. I tried to release his hands from my neck, but they were too tight; I was about to pass out when I focused Din's fire on my palm and made it crash against his face. He was sent away, but so I was, I crashed against a wall as I tried to recover my breath, but I wasn't really well. Ganondorf got up right away after rolling in the ground for some seconds; he rushed against me and I used Farore's wind in order to avoid the hit, yet his armor crusher reached me and the kick he gave me made me fell like my bones were tearing apart. I wasn't able to move fast enough to stop him when his hands trapped my arms as his legs crushed mines in order to immobilize me.

"Oh Zelda." He said with a creepy voice "How much time did I spend looking for you? Waiting for this chance, and yet you would always give your heart to Link, the man who doesn't love you."

"Let me go!" I said as I struggled to break through his imprisonment.

"I shall enjoy this only chance."

I noticed what he tried to do and despair got through me; I wouldn't let him do that.

I made a headbutt as hard as I could and luckily my forehead got his nose and he had to fall back a little giving me the chance to roll and get his hands and legs off me.

I was on a rampage of rage, I shot as many consecutively Din's fire as I could, but he dodged all of them, and then when he got near I used farore's wind. Next thing I did was to call upon my aura, I would use the Final Smash, bur first in order to ensure its target I used the fragments of the light the bow shoots to trap Ganondorf against a wall, and then I charged the shoot with my whole soul.

"No one will take my dignity."

And with those words I released the arrow that clashed against Ganondorf with might. He was thrown away to some rooms behind, the walls crumbled as the Ganondorf and the light arrow passed. I knelt as I shape shifted back to my human self, I wasn't still accustomed to make a Final Smash.

"_Good way to end a match_."

"I can't believe he even tried to…" I wasn't even able to say it, I shook my head and turned around to get near around Snake "Is he dead?"

"_Maybe, touch him_."

I touch his neck; I could barely feel pulse. The floor was steaming on his blood. He took my wrist.

"You…" he said weakly "please… take care of her."

"All this time…" I asked sadly "you only wanted to have Samus back?"

Everyone had the same wish, the war separated people and each one fought to get something back, just as I did for Matthew. I could see how Snake's struggle reached to an end; his face shed tears, I could see in his eyes he despised being so naïve, he despised that the last person seeing his tears was I and not Samus. And so the pulse stopped. The blood kept steaming but it had no longer life on it, the body was now cold.

My heart felt ice cold, even after enduring with dead several times it was still stronger than me. I rubbed his face and closed his open eyes as I heard footsteps.

I turned back and watched horrified Ganondorf spreading black aura, he had a bizarre smile on his face as I stared to his pierced hips and waist. He wasn't done for yet.

He didn't say anything, he just turned into a giant grotesque bull in a couple of seconds and before I could move his horns already pierced my lungs as I was rose to the air breathless, I crashed with the roof, which collapsed and I almost did too. I felt that I was going to die, and maybe so I would. Ganondorf got back to his usual self as I fought not to pass out.

"Now." He said "This is a lesson little girl, don't mess with me."

My body felt numb, I could feel how the blood was rushing out my body, my mouth released some blood too, and Ganondorf never dropped me, he kept me up high with his hands on my neck.

"I'll heal you later; you must first endure your punishment."

_Somebody… somebody help… _Those were the first thoughts that crossed my mind, but then I had Matthew's face on my mind, his sad and hurt face, the one he showed us on the graveyard, and Maquiel's despair face when she left us. My left hand reached weakly to Ganondorf's.

"You still try to fight back?" he asked annoyed "It will only make it worse."

I smiled; he never noticed what I hid behind my leg. I untied the strings fast with my right hand and then I raised the blade beam and unleashed the light blue beam from it, piercing Ganondorf heads. Black aura started to crumble his whole face, as my face shone on a strong glimpse.

"As long as I have my friends, my heart won't collapse."

My words were weak, and I was sure Ganondorf couldn't listen to them, but it was alright, at the end I at least managed to defeat someone on my own. I smiled as Ganondorf was disintegrated and I fell on the floor smiling. I managed to light the burden a little bit. I just now desired for Maquiel to be able to rescue Matthew. And so my eyes closed waiting for death.

* * *

_**Author Note: **__I know, I know, so much blabbering about Ganondorf in the past, so I would kill him in his first appearance? But worry not! His death won't stop his development in farther chapters, so worry not; it is part of my scheming ;). I hope you enjoyed!_


	17. Ending the oath

**Ending the oath**

"So it's only the three of us." Ash commented as we walked through the desert that lead towards siege castle "It's been a while… I didn't want to come back actually."

"None of us wanted," I replied "it brings bad memories back." I looked around for Melanie, but there was no sight of her "I hope Melanie is walking along with Robert and Maquiel."

"I told them not to get separate." Kirby sighed as we got quiet, it was unlikely for him to make comments "Anyway, let's go."

We started running forwards, yet the battlefield was some miles front of us, it'd take us quite a while to get there. I could feel a huge anxiety while I ran, probably because it was the first time I wasn't around Melanie to protect her, I didn't even know if someone was around her. I didn't doubt that she could survive on her own, but… I'd rather see her with someone along.

Kirby suddenly sped up, he called the dragoon and he left us behind.

"Hey! What's the rush?" I asked as he was about to take off "Take us with you!"

"No time."

That's all he said before leaving us behind. Something really bad must have happened in order to leave us behind. This entire time I only knew about one thing Kirby worried about.

"Fuck damn it!" I yelled as I ran forwards.

"What's wrong?" Ash asked as he followed.

"Melanie must be in danger!"

My blood froze, my whole brain tried to look for another outcome for Kirby's departure, but I was sure that it was the only reason, I could feel it on my blood, and my eyes were burning while I imagined Melanie's dead body. I gulped as I ran faster, and I unleashed my sword as fast as I could to block Marth's attack. He jumped from a tower of Siege castle and his sword tried to cut me on the half, but found itself stopped by my blade.

"Get out of my way!" I roared as I pushed him backwards.

I kept running towards, but Marth didn't quit, he followed me and at the entrance Wario blocked the gates, as R. filled the entire area, and Mewtwo came down from the sky in front of Ash. We were both surrounded by a huge army. And there were more smashers coming, pals we haven't seen in a while like Olimar, Jigglypuf, Falco leading the attack, among many others.

"You are surrounded."

"I already know that." I said on burning anger "I guess we shall open a path then."

"You've become rather the cocky one." Falco commented.

"And you were always the fool one." Wario commented "Fool enough to trust me as your ally I mean."

"I'll get it on you now."

"If I don't get on you first." Marth replied as he pointed his sword toward my neck.

Yet the R. army was not able to start the attack. Huge powerful flames covered the whole desert landscape around the castle and burnt them down. The flames barely rubbed me and Ash, they were meant to end the whole army.

"It seems quantity is not equal strength."

I recognized the deep and creepy voice coming from a boned jaw. It was Dry Bowser walking forward along with Ike and a face I wouldn't think I'd ever see again.

"Sonic?" I asked.

He didn't answer, he just stared at Ike.

Falco made an announcement as he raised his arm towards Ike.

"The warriors of sunset are here!" He said "Call Fox now! I'll take on Bowser! Marth, Mewtwo, hold those two! We must defend the castle!"

"Did you hear?" He said laughing "It seems like we get to brawl after all."

He didn't even care that the other party was here anymore, he just brandished his sword towards me and I avoided it as I drew a bomb. I jumped backwards as I threw it to him. He prepared a counter and the bomb show itself ineffective; Marth came towards me fast and he slashed. I slashed too and the swords clashed, again and again for a while, Marth's blade was hard to contain, but my Master Sword was more than enough to contain every single powerful attack. I could barely see my surroundings anymore, my eyes were focused on Marth's blade that was now faster, I didn't have any time to counter it any more I had to dodge every single slash.

"What's going on Link? Is that all?"

I had to concentrate on his blade, waiting for an opening to counter attack, yet I got a little bit distracted when I saw Sonic running at high speed towards siege castle; he probably entered before he could be stopped. As a result I was cut on my left arm, a superficial wound, but it could have gone deeper if I didn't jump backwards. I gave a quick glimpse around Ash who sent out Ivysaur to face Mewtwo and it seemed that he was having a hard time against him, but I couldn't see him any further as I had to start dodging Marth's sword again. He was like an unstoppable beast, but I finally found a moment where I could grab his wrist and then I slashed my sword attempting to cut through his neck. It would have been lethal if I made the movement a second before, Marth was able to jump backwards and the sword just cut barely his waist.

"Well, you've finally…"

I already shot an arrow while he was talking, but he destroyed it with a sword slash. I attached a bomb with the arrow this time and I waited for him to come closer; he probably thought I wouldn't have the guts to fire the bomb that near to my body, but he was wrong. It almost pierced his head; he dodged on perfect timing and the arrow crashed on Falco who was thrown backwards while he fought Bowser.

"Wow, thanks."

But I wasn't able to reply; once again I got caught by Marth's sword play. Straight slashes that made me walk backwards as our swords crashed with might. I was losing my grip and my patient, my eyes burnt in angst as I hoped to finally get through this battle in order to aid Melanie, I was too worried and it was reflected on my own sword play that became rather reckless and I let myself unguarded at times. Marth opened some wounds around my legs and my face, all of them superficial, but they were starting to hurt badly. If I just had the smash ball back there I would have ended it, but I knew it wasn't an option, the one I saved for last resort was used against Maquiel.

I grabbed the Master Sword with both hands and I made a spin attack, forcing Marth to jump. He pointed his sword to my head from the air and as he fell I jumped backwards and I attached a bomb to an arrow and managed to hit him on perfect timing. I didn't wait to see what happened; I just ran forward the siege castle.

"Abandoning your com…"

Wario's taunt made no effect, I just ran forwards until his words to deceive were lost in the air. I had a priority and it was to find Melanie. I knew that Ash would be ok, beside I left him with powerful allies… although I wasn't very sure we could trust them at all, but at the moment I couldn't care the less, if Melanie died, it was over for me.

* * *

"Where are you taking me?"

"Home."

She stopped me in middle of our run away and she glared at me.

"I'm not leaving without Salaric."

"Yes, you are." I replied "Maquiel is here with her party, they will take care of Salaric."

"They can take care of me too then."

"No, they can't!" I replied while the concern filled my body. "You don't understand! If Gabriel finds us…"

"If Gabriel finds us, what?"

That question didn't come from Sophie, but from Gabriel itself. His voice covered the room. I thought I would manage to departure in the airwing before he found us, but it was now too late. I gulped; did he know what Sophie did?

"Why have you taken Sophie out Meta Knight?" he asked coldly, he must have known already "Didn't Wolf give us strict orders not to take her out?."

Sophie was scared; her hands reached the gun, ready to draw it if the things got ugly. I held my sword tightly while my eyes focused on Gabriel's… and I felt the same bizarre energy that her mother used to spread, except that this time it didn't make me flinch.

"It was a gun fired."

_Shit! _That was the only thought that covered my mind at the time.

"And as I see, she holds the weapon, the question is, when did she go to my mother's…?"

"I killed her."

Sophie's eyes opened wide as Gabriel glared at me.

"Why are you protecting her?"

"I used this woman to kill your mother." I said trying to make use of a creepy voice "I deceived her, I led her to your mother's whereabouts and I forced her to kill her."

Gabriel eyebrows were almost touching the eyes, his mouth and his eyes seemed consumed in a rage like anything I've ever seen before. I had to convince him that it was me, that I was a traitor.

"Your mother was disgusting." I said taunting "Since the moment she got here I wanted to kill her, but I couldn't, she had this bizarre skill to make me flinch…"

"Stop."

"… So when Sophie arrived I saw my chance."

"I said stop!" he roared "Meta Knight I swear to god! If you keep with this I'll kill you! Just say it! Say that it was her and not you!"

"But it was me Gabriel." I finally said "You just never saw it."

The road almost froze me solid. I barely dodged and then my Galaxia crashed with his road as from it started to me freeze my body. Gabriel's eyes were insanely mad; I saw the flames of his rage as his snout proffered a great roar. Then I heard the gun fire. My whole arm and a quarter of my body were frozen solid, but it stopped. The bullet pierced Gabriel's shoulder and he walked backwards wounded. Then Sophie shot again to the other shoulder and then to his right leg as she walked forward and pointed to Gabriel's head.

"Sorry." She said as she took me "I'm so sorry."

She ran away with me in his arms, but I could hear Gabriel's roar and I pictured him chasing us, but he was paralyzed, I saw how he was crawling towards us, probably trying he didn't want to waist time getting the bullets out of his body. He would be fine, I knew as much, yet it wasn't safe here anymore. I was a traitor now.

And just when things couldn't get any more complicated, Kirby passed by with the dragoon.

"Kirby!" Sophie and I shouted.

He stopped, probably not because of me, but Sophie. His eyes were opened wide when he saw me on Sophie's arms, and he seemed puzzled, also he saw how Gabriel struggled to reach us. He seemed in a crossroad.

"What are you doing with Meta Knight?"

Sophie was shocked, she probably didn't know yet that Kirby could talk.

"Answer the question!"

"He saved me!"

Kirby stared at me as I glared at him. I didn't know what to feel anymore, I swore that I would strike him down, yet I couldn't avoid being a little bit happy deep down.

"Get on, I'll get you out."

He was in a hurry, probably not in the mood for helping us, yet he carried us away.

"I'LL KILL YOU META KNIGHT!" Gabriel shouted.

I didn't reply, I just stared at him with pity as we got away.


	18. Dealing with the dealer

**Dealing with the dealer**

"_Brother! She is…"_

The wound was awful; I was amazed that she could still breathe, but it wouldn't last for long, at the rate the bleeding was spreading she might just have some minutes left to live. I had to think quickly, otherwise she would die, but there weren't any medical supplies around, neither a heart container nor anything that could help me heal her. Then I checked on Snake's body and I found that he was saving a heart container oh his chest, then why didn't he use it? Unless…

"Will you stop playing dead?"

Snake got up immediately and he rolled to the left in order to get away from me. I ignored him as I released the liquid of the heart container around Melanie's body. Snake stared at me.

"She saved me." He said "Despite everything, she protected me."

"That's the way she is." I said as I saw how the liquid closed the wound and restored Melanie's blood "She is still a girl after all, she's only 14 years old, still naïve and she hates cruelty."

"What are you doing here with them?" he asked me "Weren't you with the night stalkers?"

"I'm on my own." I replied "I always was. I came here to kill him."

"You don't seem to have a trouble telling me your master plan."

"I don't, because I can tell you were not in his side."

Snake glared at me, he was probably confused. I grabbed Melanie from the waist once she was fully recovered and held her in my arms, thinking where I could leave her so that she could be safe. I took a look around, there were many doors.

"We need to take her somewhere safe. You know this place, don't you? Tell me where to go."

"How did you know I was not on Wolf's side?"

"Either Melanie hurt you to death or one of your allies from here did. You said Melanie saved you, so you must be a traitor."

"And Matthew said you were the dumb one."

"I am." I replied "I just have the sense to see thing through; now where to?"

Snake frowned as he opened the door on his left. I could see that he had many answer ready to be ask in his tongue, yet he kept shut, probably he thought he wouldn't get any straight answers for me, which was right.

I sighed, I didn't like to wander around aimlessly, it made me feel lost. I didn't have a clue on where he was taking me to, but I decided to follow him anyway.

We reached the end of a corridor and we found a room where Melanie could rest; it was quite big, rock bottom floor, big windows that brought light to the room and two bed. I checked one and I noticed a man was sleeping there. He was sweating a lot, his breathe was irregular, and his face was thin.

"Salaric?" I asked.

"This is where Wolf keeps him." Snake explained "Ever since he took Yoshi and Sonic out of him he hasn't woke up."

"He did what?" I asked.

"_So that's how I got out!_" Yoshi screamed in my head.

"Didn't you think it was kind of suspicious that Yoshi got back all sudden? Didn't you meet him?"

Snake didn't know that Yoshi was back with me, he probably thought I was still relying on Lucario's blood and aura power. That made sense, after all I could see that ever since he saw me he hid a lot of frighten behind his eyes and I could use it.

"No, I didn't." I replied "I wonder where he is now."

"_Lie better._" Yoshi suggested "_While telling a lie avoid eye contact unless is completely necessary._"

It was weird that Yoshi was lecturing me about how to lie, but he was right, if I was going to do it, I needed to do it right. I gave just a quick glimpse towards Snake and then I looked around. I tried to think how to protect Melanie and look out for Matthew. I had a risky idea, yet it was the only thing I could think of.

"Stay with them." I said as I lain Melanie on bed, and as soon as I notice he was about to refute I rose my hand towards him and he seemed frightened.

"If I get to know that you left her, God may have mercy on your soul."

"Go."

I couldn't count on Snake protecting Melanie for long, so I had to end this quickly. I ran towards the corridors aimlessly hopping to eventually find him. Somewhere inside me I felt hesitation, but my eyes closed and I remember the whole pain he caused. I was sure of my intentions.

"_Don't worry; I'll follow you to hell if I must._"

"I know, that's what concerns me." I said on my mind as I ran forward.

I kept running, looking for any possible path where Matthew and Wolf might have been, checking behind every door I met on my way until I got to a staircase; it lead to some kind of basement, or at least I thought so, but it was really some kind of parking lot, holding a lot of airwings.

"So this is where Wolf's minions get to Earth." I said as I looked around.

I walked on the path until I found a rail of blood that was flooding the room, yet it stopped at my feet as I walked forward. The blood led me to Gabriel, who lied on the ground. His legs and shoulders were broth frozen solid in order to stop the blood shedding, however who hurt him didn't cut him through, through the ice I could see the wounds were small, but covered on a lot of blood. Gunshots, it was the only way. I could see that the injuries were bad, yet his life wasn't really in peril, he was in the hell of a pain. His eyes met with me.

"Gabriel…"

"Don't say that name." He replied angered "My name is Fox."

I felt some pity towards him; the way he was on the ground, so pathetic, so useless, and probably he was about to give up on living, I could tell on his eyes, the burden of such a great loss that his heart could not bear. I really despised him, he was weak, irrational, he lost his pride in battle four years ago, yet I never wished something like this to happen, no one deserved it. I couldn't see it, not because I pity him, but because I saw myself at the floor and I didn't like what I saw.

"I'll make it quick." I said while shape shifting.

"What?" he asked "No! I can't die now! Not until I…!"

"_I'll save you from your suffering._"

"Stop it!" he begged while he broke the ice from his shoulders and legs, I was amazed that it only took him some seconds by just shaking his body, either the ice was too weak or he was strong despite his wound "I don't want to die yet!"

"_I'm making you a favor._"

I was beside him, and I was about to stomp on his head to make sure that he would die quickly, yet he stopped my foot with his hand. I flipped and my tail hit his head making him roll to the left, crashing with an airwing as he tried to stand up. But I was too fast for him right now, I was beside him again and this time my tail hit his chest directly. On any common human being, it would have torn the heart apart, but I knew Gabriel was tougher than that, so I just stomped his head once. It didn't kill him.

"_God may…_"

My thought was interrupted as I was thrust backwards. I sensed the power that thrust me backwards and I felt happy, maybe too happy to sense that energy around my body as it got me away from Gabriel.

"Lord Wolf…" Gabriel muttered as he coughed some blood.

Yes, it wasn't Matthew at all, it was purely Wolf around this time, and I was sure about it.

"Why are you so happy Yoshi?" he asked confused "Why have you attacked Fox?"

I was about to reply, when he raised his finger.

"That's what you thought I'd say." His eyes were set on mines "But we both know you are Robert Wolf there, what intrigues me is how Yoshi came to accept it."

"_Yoshi has made him mind up._" I replied "_He is going to hell with me._"

"I know what you seek." Wolf said as he took a fighting stance "And I'm not giving it."

"_I didn't come for Matthew, neither to take vengeance on what you did._" This was the very first time I could detect a glimpse of surprise on his face and suddenly I could feel how I was smirking and my face became darker "_I came here for you._"

He hid it, he didn't even let the fear that my words produce to escape from his body, and I understood why he was scared; because, for the very first time in his whole life, he didn't see something coming.

"_Lucario's blood is good, but not good enough. You said it yourself years ago, I was empty inside and you could fill that emptiness, well…_" The wings sprouted and I was ready to fire "_I'm taking it._"

"That's not for you to decide, kid."

"_It wasn't for Matthew either."_

He was fast, but the flapping of my wings came before the swing of his claws, I was already above when I fired the first fireball. Wolf didn't even need to dodge; he reflected it towards me as I moved freely on air looking for an opening. He wasn't around, and neither was Gabriel, so I guessed he probably took him away. I wondered if he would come back; I decided not to let my guard down, but the minutes started passing as I waited for him to come back and finally I decided to save some energy and I shape shifted back, sharpening my senses in order to detect wherever if he was coming back.

I ran through the basement back to the staircase trying to reach Wolf once again. I knew I might be weaker than him this time, but I knew how his power worked and how to find a weak spot around them, I could find a little opening on him while brawling, but I needed to find him first. And as I ran forward I found myself around some of Wolf's minions covering the ways that lead the end of the corridor. I was surrounded by three shapes that were cutting through my way and that I came to recognize as they got near. An adult male human, Toon Link and Ike. I was surprised to get a glimpse on Ike, after all he wasn't a Wolf's minion; the only meaning on this was that we weren't the only ones attacking the castle, there were others too.

Toon Link seemed troubled about how to react against Ike, he seemed to know he was useless against him and the adult human just sighed. He seemed a bit too relaxed for just a standard human, so he might be a shape shifter or something like that.

"Well, if it isn't number one wanted, Ike." The human mumbled "I've heard a lot about you."

"Shut your pie hole Ed." Ike replied "I didn't come here to deal with you."

"Sorry to say this, but Matthew went the other way." I said.

"Who's looking for Matthew?" Ike asked "My party came here for you and Melanie."

I frowned, why would they want us? I glared at him as Toon Link rushed against Ike in a lame attempt to strike while he talked, but was soon kicked on the face by Ike himself and then Ike stabbed him on the chest, turning Toon Link into a trophy. Lame and sad, I thought as I stared at Ed curious, who wasn't scared, nor troubled at all; I wondered if he was going to shape shift. Then as he got nearer to me I got clearer picture of him. He wore a dark blue leather jacket that covered him from neck to hips and some black trousers. His hair was alike Maquiel's, dark and a bit spiky, green eyes, but a way more thinner face than she and he was too short beside her. He could be- or not- Maquiel's father, at this point it wouldn't surprise me at all if I saw my own mother or step-father around here, Wolf had all kind of resource to get human people, and manipulate them as he liked.

"Now, with no further distractions." Ike said "I bet you wonder why we want you two."

"Not at all." My answer left his mouth opened "I don't care why you might want us, I know what I want and it doesn't involve you guys."

"I knew it wasn't going to be the easy way." Ike said while pointing his sword at me "You all always liked it the hard way, don't you?"

"You better shape shift or leave." I said to Ed.

"Do you really believe I'm a shape shifter?" he asked surprised.

"Then get outta here."

I shape shifted and I headed towards Ike to start fighting, but I was suddenly interrupted before the battle could the start. The dragoon passed by and it crashed against Ike sending him miles away from us. He literally flew out of the castle crashing with a window that sent him straight to the dry desert outside. On the dragoon I saw not only Kirby, but Sophie and Meta Knight. I frowned as Kirby got near to me and he stared at Ed. Sophie was the first to speak up.

"What are you doing here?" she asked Ed.

"Raising Wolf's army." Ed stated as he walked away from us.

Sophie raised a gun and pointed it on Ed's head as she got off the dragoon and walked towards him.

"You will take me to wherever Salaric's being held, do you understand?"

Once again the man sighed, and he nodded as Sophie and he walked away from the corridor. Meta Knight was about to follow her, but Kirby stopped him.

"Everybody knows you are traitor like me, Gabriel must have told Wolf everything by now." Kirby said "Will you put Sophie's life on the line?"

"Why?" Meta Knight asked "Why did you save us? Why did you help Robert right now?" He raised his sword against Kirby "I want answers."

"Is that the way to treat the one who saved you?" Kirby asked.

"You may as well back stab me any time." Meta Knight replied "I'll force the truth out of you!"

"Robert," Kirby said "You may find Wolf by turning into the right in the next corridor; I need you to go now."

And so I did. I didn't trust Kirby at all, but I could tell that he wanted to settle this once and for all so I decided that maybe I could trust him on this one. Once I found him, I would force Wolf to come under my skin.


	19. Higher than the sun

**Higher than the sun**

"You lied," I said as I glared at him "over there only lies Anna's room; Wolf is preparing the war front, there's no way he is there."

"Robert is dangerous." Kirby stated "Pit approached him on the wrong way; if someone must fight Wolf it is not him…"

"But that girl Maquiel is meant to?"

He nodded and he didn't talk any further, he came towards me and I gave the first swing of my sword, but he dodged it and then he jumped backwards to only stare at me.

I was confused as my blade swung against Kirby, who dodged it with no trouble at all, why was this happening? What was the meaning of all these? Could I never trust him at all? All those questions came around my mind as I brandished my blade against him. My eyes tried to reach the truth out of him, but it was obvious that they couldn't get anything, in the end I was only seeing what I wanted to see. Whose side was he on? For a very long time I thought he was on Wolf's side and then he revealed to be on Pit's, yet now this revealed something else… this obsession about Melanie, everything he did was only because of her. There was never a time he left her unprotected her, even in the subspace he was the one who always assured that nobody crossed on her way, but Snake. On the desert, he left us and flew towards her house, she never saw him, but he was protecting her; and on the most bloody battle at the government palace, he always stood high, watching at us… no, watching at Melanie. There was something on her that was so important that he could ditch us all, even right now, in order to keep her safe he was fighting me, why? Why was I harmful to her? I knew that he saved me back there because I saved Sophie, if I didn't…

I was so sunk in my thoughts that I didn't saw when Kirby's sword slashed my mask. I just swung my blade towards him with no thought at all, with no technique, because my mind was so full of questions, trying to understand, that I couldn't possible focus on the match.

"You wanted this." Kirby said "You have 0 tolerances over traitors; come on, take me on."

"Why?"

"Here we go again."

His words were cold as usual, but this time they made me flinch, because I could see on his eyes that he was furious, a rampage of rage about to be delivered by his blade towards me. I could feel it, towards Kirby's white blade there was so much rage, desperate to go out and take it over me.

"Why did you leave? Why do you protect the girl? Why aren't you helping me?" he said it mocking, but his tone was angered "WHY DON'T YOU SHUT UP?"

He swoop up and down so fast that I didn't had the chance to avoid, so my blade took the whole impact of Kirby's blade. My blade kept his still on air, but the waves that came from his swords were so heavy that started cracking my mask as my body started to get hurt; I didn't know how long I would keep up, so I just jumped backwards as the fierce waves got through my body. Blood was shed from the sides of my round body, as Kirby got insanely fast beside me and hit my body with might. I coughed blood, but it was kept inside my mask, or what was left from it. Then he kicked me, also with might until I crashed and pounded on a wall.

I smiled, because I knew he wouldn't see me smiling. I smiled, because I knew this was the end. I smiled… because in the end, at the very least, I could meet someone I cared for.

I fell on the floor and Kirby smashed me with his hammer, he wouldn't stop attacking me until I died, who knew why? I just felt the hits, the kicks, the hammer, the sword, it didn't really matter anymore, and the only thing I wondered was why it took so fucking long. I could remember. I came first, before Kirby and King Dedede, the first from our series to come into this world. And then, when Kirby showed up, he always knew what to do, he always stood up strong and determined to do what he felt right. And then I realized, he knew everything from the very first fucking second! And he used me; so, if he was killing me, it was because I was of no longer use to him. Maybe that was Pit's fate after the deal was over. He was so naïve to believe, to trust on this little guy, only because he helped them.

He stomped me while I lain on the floor. I spat him on the face.

"You always knew."

Kirby cleaned his face as his angry eyes stared at me.

"You used me." I said "As you used Wolf, and as you are using Pit and the night stalkers." I said laughing weakly "All over that girl and god knows why."

Kirby stood me up; my mask broke apart and my yellow eyes finally met him as my smile finally reached him. A tear fell from my eyes as I struggled to talk.

"Let me help you." I said almost crying "Use me as many times as you want." The tears fell faster "I'll do anything."

"Are you so scared to die?" he asked.

"I'm not." I answered smiling "I really don't care anymore. If you decide that death is my fate, then that's it. What I want…"

What did I want? I knew that I didn't care for dying anymore, I knew, but what did I really want? What I wanted was…

"… is to stop being afraid."

Kirby stared at me, my words opened his eyes wide as he stepped backwards, May he heard them before? May he care about me? Or had some mercy? I was just left on the ground smiling as my hand finally dropped the blade on the ground. I stared at the mask; that mask was a symbol, a symbol of my loyalty that was now shattered into pieces. I was now just like Kirby, just purple, yellow eyed and wearing a black cloak. My sword, Galaxia, was symbol of my pride, and there it was, away from his master's hands. I stared at the ceiling, waiting for my life to end as I lost the only two things I held to my whole life, turning aside from my feelings, recurring only to those two items to keep moving forward. But there was something else… someone I deeply cared inside on me. Suddenly, I didn't want to die, I wanted to see her again. I stared at Kirby, afraid that he would kill me, yet as I saw him I knew that as he was protecting Melanie, he would, maybe, protect her mother as well.

"Sophie…" I whispered.

I laughed silently, I was just a purple living ball walking around, and yet whenever her eyes were set on me I felt that life had sense; she would never love me, but if she could just smile once again to me.

My hand struggled to reach Galaxia once again and I smiled as I held the blade in front of my face. I wondered why Kirby hadn't killed me yet, and I thanked god he didn't. I stood up while I was bleeding from the sides of my round body. I stood up weakly as I pointed the blade against Kirby.

"I don't understand you." He said "You asked me… to use you, and now… what are you Meta Knight?"

I smiled. I knew it; I wasn't a smasher any longer.

"I'm a human." I said out loud.

Those words left Kirby astonished. His eyes could not believe my answer as I walked towards him, bleeding to dead, with no strength left, yet with a bright smile in my face.

"My body is not human, I know as much," I said as I kept walking "but my heart is."

And so I brandished the blade against him, but as expected, his hand stopped mine before the blade could reach my face and I could see mercy on his eyes, and sadness.

"That's enough."

I fell before him as the tears of joy came from my face. Kirby seemed about to cry too.

He rubbed my body with something, probably the liquid of a heart container as my injuries healed, and then he walked around collecting the shards of my mask and when he finished he used the last of the liquid to fix the mask. Then he walked towards me.

"Do you swear… to do as I say, with no hesitation, no matter what it is, to obey me now and until both you body and soul collapse?"

"I have one condition." I said "You must keep Sophie safe, understood?"

"Got it."

"I'm your bitch for eternity."

And so, the symbol of loyalty fell on my face once again, now attached to someone else. Kirby helped me to stand up, and then he guided me forward.

"You love her." He said "You would die for her."

"Yeah…" I said weakly, then I realized "Is that why…?"

"It's far more complicated." Kirby said "And I do not love her the way you love Sophie."

It was true, it was complicated, and maybe I didn't want to understand. Words sure are useless at times, unable to describe the whole picture, the whole feelings we hold towards something, yet words are the only thing that makes sure we are alive.

We walked together on what it seemed a long path to stand higher than the sun.


	20. Two hearts beats as one

**Two hearts beats as one**

By the time I reached the 100th door I opened so far I found something I certainly didn't hope to find.

"Maquiel!"

It was Sophie's voice; I immediately smiled as I stared happily how she was safe, just as Salaric and Melanie were laying down on those beds. Snake was on the corner though, and I prepared myself to protect Sophie, but she stopped me from shape shifting.

"He was taking care of them before I got here."

"Are you a traitor?" I asked.

"Melanie saved my life." He replied "She fought against Ganondorf and defeated him in order to protect me, but she… she almost died."

"I'm fine."

Melanie just woke up and everybody stared at her; we were concerned about how weak could she be, but she managed to talk, weak though.

"Mom, can you feel it?"

"What is it sweetie?" she asked.

"The resentment… the pain… they are so close, close to Matthew as well."

My eyes opened wide as Melanie reached her hand towards me.

"I can separate them…" she said as I grabbed her hand, and she left Vatra on it "But you must avoid him from going… he is about to leave, you must stop him Maquiel."

"Where is he?" I asked impatient.

"Basement… he is about to take an airwing… hurry!"

"Take care of her, Sophie." I said as I was about to leave.

Before I could reach the door, Snake's hand grabbed my left wrist and stopped me, but then he let me go at the double.

"Come back alive." He said "I must talk to Samus."

I nodded and then I ran as fast as I could. I went on the basement before, what a run around! Now I was going as fast as I could so I could reach him and finally… I didn't know what would happen once I found him, but I knew that I needed to buy Melanie enough time to restore her powers and then she could finally bring him back to us. I ran so fast that I almost took no time to breathe in and out; I just moved my legs as fast as I could to get through the damn door that leads to the staircase.

"Matthew!" I yelled as the room filled with my yell.

As I jumped downwards I saw that around him was Gabriel, whom rested on Falco's arm. He seemed really badly injured. Matthew was on his human shape, but his eyes were different, instead of the dark brown tone I was used to, it was crimson red, just as Wolf's.

"I am not talking to Matthew, am I?" I asked as my feet touched the ground and I made a split so that I wouldn't take damage from the jump.

"He has suffered enough." Wolf replied "So he asked me to take over while the war raged on."

"It's not only us who got here, isn't it?"

"Ike's party." He said seriously "But you haven't come here to talk, but to get your beloved back, am I right?"

"You bet." I said "I'm gonna kick your sorry ass back to your pussy video game!"

"Always taunting…" he said laughing "Is that your way to hide fear?"

"Maybe." I replied "But it doesn't make it less true."

"You don't actually buy a word of what you are saying." He said smiling "You are not speaking to me, but to yourself, trying to convince yourself that you have a chance."

"And you are trying to make me forfeit." I replied "So that you won't have to kill me, because it would hurt Matthew. After all, you only seek for his happiness, don't you?"

He clapped and then he stared at me smirking.

"That's the difference between us. I seek for his greater good, you seek him because you are lonely, because you miss him, but most of all, because you think nobody else would love you."

My fist closed as my eyes opened wide and the rage seemed to grow quite large.

"You never had a boyfriend, nobody has found you attractive, but him, thus you think he is your last chance, you think you are meant to be together and so came here in order to grasp your own happiness."

I didn't hesitate further. I went straight after him with my fist closed so I could make the first impact, but as suspected he raised his hand in order to take me on with his telekinesis, but I knew that trick now, and I ran to the left before the hand could reach me, and I started running around him on circle so that he couldn't find his hand around my body. Every time I saw him moving something he used his hand to reach it, so if I stayed out of his hand reach I would be fine, and as I had Samus' agility I didn't need to shape shift yet, otherwise I'd be slow and wouldn't be able to find the opening I was waiting for. He tried to catch me, but I moved too fast, not for his eyes to catch, but for his human hand to reach my speed, after all he hadn't shape shifted yet. And so I made through his hand and when he was finally about to reach me, I grabbed it, turned it around and I punched him in the face sending him backwards. As he stepped backwards a veil of fire covered him and it approached to me. I had to run as fast as I could and when the flames were about to reach me I released Vatra and the beam took on the flames as I escaped. He stared at me as I pointed the blade towards him. His nose bled a little bit.

"It has been quite a long time since I used that sword."

"You never used it." I said "This is Matthew's sword and his scent is here."

"That's the weapon he used to kill Roy."

"So what?" I asked as I stared at him "Any time Matthew was unable to fight as Mario, this was his mean to defend himself and those around him. This sword bears his whole soul, his bad and good sides as well."

"You think it can reach Matthew?" he asked "Is that what you want to convince yourself of?"

"Yes," I admitted "I need to hold on to it, so I can defeat you!"

"How naïve from Pit's apprentice!"

"I'm not his apprentice!" I replied as I slashed the sword on the air "Not any more!"

And so I headed in a straight line towards him to slash him with Vatra, but just as I expected it, he caught me on his telekinesis and sent me against a wall. It hurt, my back felt like it was about to give in, but I knew it was necessary, so that he would come towards me. And in a matter of seconds he was and the claws that came from his hand were about to slash me, but I slashed him first. I managed to be faster and the beam sword nicked the armor as Wolf jumped backwards and a little steam of blood came out.

"Quite strong armor." I said "I merely nicked it."

"You are stronger than what you were on the graveyard. It seems that I can't take you lightly after all."

I knew what that meant and so I shape shifted as fast as I could, because he did the same. And then there he was, the Wolf I haven't met in four years, the one we all feared and who I shall defeat now. I waited for him to act, but that was a mistake.

The first move was too quick; the claws almost destroyed the whole suit from the chest to the hips, but I managed to jump backwards. He was the hell faster in Wolf's shape, just as I feared and I was slower on the power suit, but otherwise I wouldn't survive on my human self. I could barely read his movements because he moved around too fast in order to confuse my sight. At every second I felt how the claws were coming from every single direction, scratching the helmet, my legs, my back, my arms, until I was able to take his arm when he tried to tear mine's off and I shot him a missile on the face, but that only made him step backward and then I started hitting him with might on the waist hopping that I could tear some inners, but it was pointless, my punches were effective, but they weren't lethal, they were slowed down by telekinesis, and the strength comes from the mass and acceleration that my punches has, over any average human, thus they weren't that much different from usual punches. When I finally stopped, Wolf counter attacked with a kick that hit my face and for an instance it elevated my body and then he grabbed my chest to thrust me towards the floor. As I was about to turn Vatra on to pierce his lung, he deflected it with telekinesis; it seemed that while shape shifted he didn't need to reach the object with his hand. I rolled in order to get him off me, but his claws pierced through my back and the suit was broken there and a steam of blood flew of it as I stood up and then I pointed my cannon towards Wolf waiting him to come after me. He did and his claws pierced trough my helmet, cutting a little bit the skin on my cheek, but I released the Zero Laser on his face. He was sent backwards, flying away from me as the laser destroyed the wall and sent him outside where the hell of a battle was taking at the same time ours did. As I ran towards the torn wall I saw how, at the distance, Ash and his pokemons brawled against Mewtwo, how Dry Bowser was beating the living crap over the R.O.B army, Marth, King Dedede and any smasher how came closer to him. And I saw how Sonic and Link rushed in the castle. I jumped outside as my eyes stared at Wolf again, who this time had several minor burning in his skin, and as my suit fall behind me and I released the whip.

"This is your last chance to forfeit!" Wolf warned.

And so I fell next to him on the sand and I unleashed the plasma whip to keep the fighting on. He stopped it with his barehanded, grabbed it and threw me away as he ran towards me.

"You are stronger, but not strong enough!"

I kicked his waist to force him step backwards as I prepared my whip once again. He recovered fast and this time, as he slashed the air, black flames came from his claws at high speed towards me, but I flipped and I dodged it, yet he ran fast to reach me and this time the slash was headed towards my chest; I avoided it by turning aside to the right and then I spun and I raised my leg in order to kick him on the face with my left leg. I made contact and then I unleashed the plasma whip once again. It hit Wolf, but it didn't have any effect, his skin reflected it like if it was just a simple string. Then I jumped backwards as I stared at Wolf with cautious, I had to use my agility in the Zero Suit, otherwise he would trap me on the double. I remembered the time I felt time freezing and he switched himself for Peach, causing her death, could he do something like that again? My eyes never lost contact with him, but it wasn't enough, his claws were about to slash me once again on my face. I bent on perfect timing, but he turned his reflector on and cast me aside. He gave me no time to recover on midair, he shot me several time with his blaster and I felt how the suit was about to give in to the flames that the blaster caused. As soon as my feet touched the ground I could feel how he tackled me on the waist; his body was filled with black flames that covered my body. I was cast aside and rolled in the sand as the flames started disintegrate. I coughed blood. For an instance I thought he would make the finishing blow, but he just waited until I stood up.

"Do you need to take a worse beating?" He asked "Can't you see there's nothing you can do? I was already invincible without Matthew!"

I smiled. It was true; he was way stronger than I was back then. I could barely keep myself stood up while he didn't even use his final smash. And yet I stared at him with burning eyes. I didn't need to defeat him; I needed to buy Melanie time to recover enough so she could use her final smash.

"_He is not attacking._" I said to Samus, who I didn't know if she was listening "_Samus, if you can hear me please tell me that there is a way to actually get time._"

"_I'll… send you there…_"

"_Where?_" I asked.

Wolf was about to start attacking again, I could tell it on his face, he was deeply hoping to avoid killing me; I closed my eyes as I tried to understand Samus faint words.

"_If you can make me strong…_" I was thinking about what Samus really wanted, and then I remember Snake's face back on the room, and how every time we met I felt Samus grief "_I'll give you my body._"

I didn't understand quite what happened, but when Wolf was coming after me, I suddenly blacked out. It was like time halted and darkness consumed me; there was nothing beneath me, but deep darkness while I moved my body, which I noticed wasn't longer in Samus' form. No, it was me walking forward in a straight path, I just couldn't see it; but I could see the suit that lay some feet ahead of me. As I reached it I started feeling weaker, and when I got next to it I felt ill. It was a combination of some of Samus suits, the dark suit, the black suit and the gravity suit, all of them joined on the varia suit making it only one.

"That is my final form" Samus told me. I could hear her somewhere in the dark "Take it, but if you remain too long on it your life will run out."

"It's a risk I'm ready to take."

"Why?" she asked "Why have you gone so far for him? How could you not let his memory go after four years?"

"Usually any girl would have forgotten everything about it by that time, I know," I replied "but…"

I was about to say that he was the one for me, but I kept shut, there was no real way to know that, if I gave it a try, I might have met someone, I could have keep going on with my life just as Melanie said around a month ago. But why didn't I? Why did I need to hold so much onto Matthew? A flash from the past came to my head.

"_Why do we have different fathers?"_

_Sarah's question was a tough one for me. I really hoped that mom had this conversation with her instead of me; I just had to suck the bad memory up and rub my sister's face as I held the tears and my voice tried to keep it strong._

"_It is because Peter was meant to be my father as well." I managed to say "My real dad… wasn't mean to be my dad at all."_

"_Does he feel that way?"_

_That question was even tougher, and I couldn't avoid shedding a lone tear. I swore mom that I wouldn't meet him again, she couldn't bear to think on how damage he could make me, and I understood it, and surely I didn't want to drive Sarah to his hands, but I couldn't deny that somewhere deep in my heart I missed him, I missed the way he took care of me when I was even younger, and I hated the fact that I could never meet him again. I couldn't, it was like fate's burden was on my back, and it was too much. I hated it, I couldn't even try… deeply inside I wanted him to work things out with mom and come back, I wanted him to go back! I couldn't bear it! The tears fell because I wasn't able to keep it together any longer. Sarah hugged me concerned, delivering me her affection, but it wasn't enough… I needed his, as I needed…_

"I need to feel his affection."

A lone tear fell on the darkness as my hand reached for the suit.

"I don't care what will happen to me." I said as I lain down on the suit "I need to feel it, once again."

The darkness was cast away as my hand stopped Wolf's claws. My sight was at its best, I was able to read the whole scenario in just a matter of seconds. The suit could identify every single particle in my surrounding and I could process it right away. Wolf didn't expect me to stop his attack, as he didn't see coming that my suit started shining. I had no idea of what he saw, but he jumped backwards as his astonished eyes stared at me.

"Is that your final form?" he asked.

I ran towards and I felt that our speed was finally matched. The gravity suit made the suit even faster than the Zero Suit as it controlled gravity, and I matched Wolf's speed. I ran towards him in order to punch him and succeed, the hit was given on the face, but he was tougher than that. As soon as he was hit he stepped backwards and then he kicked me; I stopped the kick with my right hand and then he used his tail to hit me, but I grabbed it with my left hand and I threw him away. He recovered in mid air and he stared firing with his blaster as I shot him with my missiles; they all crashed and stopped each other. He covered himself in dark flames and rushed towards me; I dodged, but then he activated his reflector and sent me upwards, yet I recovered on the air and I shot a full charged shot on him. He avoided and I kept shooting until he decided to activate his reflector again. The charged shot hit the suit, but it didn't bring any damage at all. The Wolf jumped towards me in order to hit me with his claws, but I grabbed both of his wrists and I kicked his crouch as we both fell on the sand. He activated his reflector once again in order to get me away from him. He started breathing heavily, but then he smiled.

"It's been a while" he said as a red darkened aura covered his body "since someone actually gave a fight back."

"_Don't let him use the final smash!_" Samus warned me "_Even less his final form!_"

"What am I supposed to do then?"

I wasn't in control of my body any longer. Samus took control of the suit as I was pushed backwards to the darkness, as a mere spectator. Wolf was about to call his final smash, but Samus grabbed his head first. Then Wolf stabbed us on the waist with his claws, but Samus didn't flinch, her hand started glowing in sparks as I felt how my soul was being drawn to her hand.

"I'll send your soul to Matthew!" she said "You must find the place where his soul rests before the wound kill us!"

And so I felt how I was dragged towards his head and as my soul traveled through bodies, I would swear I felt the rain beats on my body.


	21. Nameless and Reborn 2, BoRn?

_**Author Note: **__This chapter is split on Maquiel's POV and then Matthew's. It might be a little corny, but deal with it! Enjoy and review =D!_

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**Nameless and reborn 2 [BoRn?]**

I was barefoot; the rain felt heavy as it crashed on my body. The wind was so silent, and yet it could pass through my body and freeze me over along with the rain as I walked among the graves. It felt so sad, so empty here; was this place where Matthew's soul resided? It felt so gloomy; it made me want to cry as I walked forward looking for him along the graveyard. I shouted hi name a couple of time with no luck. I could only hear how my feet broke apart some dry leaves that covered the ground, making an autumn like path that I ran along. As I ran I understood that the rain wasn't just any water; a little bit fell on my mouth and when I tasted it I felt some salt on it, then I thought that what fell from the sky was no rain at all, but tears instead. I touched my belly and I felt an intense pain coming from there; I was running short of time.

I kept running, until on the rain I recognized a shape staring on a grave with now epitaph on it. It was Matthew.

"I found you."

The guy turned aside to see me; his eyes seemed confused when he stared at me.

"Who are you?"

The question hurt me at first, but then I just smiled and I sat next to him as the rain never ceased. It reminded me that phrase "it rains, but it pours" and a little innocent laugh escaped through my lips. My left arm was around Matthew's chest.

"It's ok." I said "You don't need to know yet." I wanted him to remember by himself, and such I needed to ask this "May you tell me your name?"

"My name is Wolf." I felt like someone stabbed me on the chest "Wolf O'Donnell"

Just as I feared; during the battle, while Wolf took over to fight me I could sense how there was no sign of Matthew's scent at all, and now, he believed he was truly Wolf. I took a quick glimpse on the graveyard epitaph and I saw that it held Wolf's name.

I embraced him tight and his head rested on my shoulder as I wondered what I should do. I rubbed his face as the rain came with might toward our faces. Then I turned him towards me and I kissed him. He was scared, at first, as he didn't recognize me, but soon enough he started to kiss me back as our lips felt like they were finally meeting after such a long time. It was sweet, not like the first time when he kissed me in desperate attempt to avoid blowing his cover, this time it was real and he could feel it. As soon as the kiss ended he stared at me with a sad and scare gaze; when Matthew became a shape shifter he always showed himself overconfident and show off, now I understood that it was a shell for us not to see how scared he was, deep down in both heart and soul he feared the reality of battle, he feared getting hurt, and losing people, all because he experienced that to early. And as I stared at him, I also could stare at myself as a child. I was unable to let go, I was unable to move on, and so I obsessed so much about Matthew that I never really thought of his happiness at all, I just thought on myself, on my own obsession about right and wrong, and I obsessed myself with Matthew as well. All this time I never showed him any true love at all until now, it was the very first time I was able to show him my true feelings without the reason to interfere. For the first time, I was really doing what my heart wanted. And so I cried for a second, while hugging him, sobbing, and shedding tears along with the endless rain.

"It's ok." I said with a broken voice as I felt how our bodies fell on the dry leaves "I love you."

Those words made him warm. He didn't seem to understand very well, but I knew that he was growing warmer on the inside as my belly hurt insanely, the message that I had not much time left.

"You know who you are." I said as my arms started to fade.

"Wait!" he asked. "Don't leave me! The rain here is unbearable! I can't do it alone."

"I'm not leaving." I said while my whole body was about to fade "You just need to remember your name."

And then, I faded.

* * *

As soon as she left I started worrying; I was all by myself in the middle of an endless rain and endless graveyard, some many gravestones with so many names I could not possibly remember. I just walked around thinking about what she said; my name. What about it? My name was Wolf, I knew that well, and time from time the other me would come here and try to comfort me. Usually the rain wouldn't be so bad, at times I would be resting on the comfort of an endless sunshine were angst is away. But something happened, for some reason he was sad, which meant I was sad too and thus the rain fell endlessly. There was no comfort any longer, just angst, despair, and hurt feeling… fear, there was also a lot of fear around that I could feel as the rain fell on my cheeks. I stared at the cloudy sky, trying to get through the words of that weird woman. There was something about her that made her special, it was the way that I felt her like a mother, the nurturing love that she gave me in such short notice, those concerned eyes on me, the broken smile that was waiting for me. I didn't recall of ever seeing her, yet I knew I had met her before and I wanted to meet her again. I could feel how the rain came towards me with might as the other me feared for me to leave. How could I leave him like that? If I wasn't around the angst would come once again, and I would lose it, this father like feeling I had while being with him. I couldn't possibly go on without that, he gave me strength, he showed me the path I should take and if I screwed things up he was there to help me fix it.

I sat in front of a gravestone with my name. Wolf; it was so sad, because I felt that there was so much buried there, so many things he didn't want to see… he? I just realized that most of the times I referred as Wolf as him and not as me. What did that mean? I ran along the graveyard looking for a name that could tell me something. And there were plenty names that came across, but not one of them felt like mine. Where was he hiding my name? And why was he hiding it? I kept running through the endless graveyard as the leaves started flying around behind me.

"Who the hell am I?" I asked out loud as I looked for something "Why won't you tell me?"

The rain became a storm; the fear was way too great and the wind revolved around me with blazing flames in order to avoid me from leaving. And as I stared at those flames I could recall a time when fire acted at my command, a time when I struggled along friends, a time when overconfidence flowed around my body. My eyes seemed to start igniting as the answer came closer and closer to me; those flames, and those memories. As I floated around the eye of the storm I understood why he was so worried, and a side of me didn't really want to leave, but the flames, and the memories guided all to that woman. I had to meet her again, nothing else mattered, I had to… move on.

"Set me free Wolf!" I asked "I know you and I aren't the same!"

The storm turned to be worse and it tried to pull me apart, it tried to hide the flames of my memories, it tried with might to contain me there.

"It's not like I don't care about you!" I replied "You are the closest thing to a father I have! But I need to go!"

He wanted me to stay, so that he could always protect me, he wanted me to stay so he could repay his debt… debt to whom? I didn't know, but I felt it while the whirl tried with might to contain me there.

"My name is…!" And the answer came "My name is Mario!"

A bright light shone towards my body, breaking through the storm, and I feel that the light was pulling me out like a hand. It felt so warm; it was also filled in concerned and determination. And I finally felt how I was leaving Wolf's body.

My eyes opened and I was falling on the sand next to a girl. My sight was recovering fast and I could recognize the girl as my memories came back.

"I made it in time."

I recognized that voice, it came from an exhausted Melanie. My body was weak, but it held with no trouble Maquiel's bleeding body. She stared at me and smiled.

"We got you back."

I heard a growl and I turned aside. Wolf was seeing me with despair, anger, and fear. I remembered everything, the time we spent together, how I agreed to be with him, how I told him to take over me and erase my identity. I gulped and I held Maquiel's body tightly.

"I'll get you back…" Wolf said weakly. I could tell that he was worn out due to his struggle with Maquiel.

"Please Wolf, listen!" I said.

"Matthew!" Melanie yelled as Wolf came towards me.

It happened too fast. Wolf was coming towards me, just as Melanie ran as fast as she could to protect me, but anyway I was frozen solid, my legs didn't move, but I hugged Maquiel so I could at least protect her from Wolf's strike. I closed my eyes waiting for the end, but nothing happened. When I opened them I stared at someone I thought I would never see again. He pushed Wolf back with a might punch and his shape glowed as a yellow cape covered his back. Then he turned aside and tears of joy came down from my eyes.

"S me Matthew." He said smiling "Mario."


	22. The forsaken

**The forsaken**

I was so happy. Matthew and Melanie were next to me as Mario faced Wolf; somehow it felt so right, like if things were finally returning to be the way they supposed to be. Matthew's face was still on shock, as Melanie's was, but I… for some reason I didn't freak out when I stared at Mario, neither I wondered how the hell he got here, I just got so happy to see him awake, to see him reunited with Matthew. I smiled and closed my eyes as I felt a pair of hands breaking my blouse and making a tourniquet around the wound in my waist.

"Hang in there Maquiel!" Melanie said on soft voice as her hands left my waist "Matthew…"

I opened my eyes and I saw how she hugged him. Matthew didn't react at all; he seemed to be frozen solid as he stared at Mario who was fighting on equal terms against Wolf. Mario dodged every single attempt of Wolf to cut him with his claws and when he found an opening he hit Wolf's face forcing him to step backwards. He was stronger, I had no idea why or how he got so strong, but he was kicking Wolf's ass. He turned aside Wolf and stared at us as his yellow cloak flapped on the passing wind as a pair of wings.

"Take her away." He said.

"Wait!" Matthew finally said "How on Earth are you alive? Why didn't you stop me back there when I asked you? How come you…?"

"Shut up!" Mario yelled as he headbutted Matthew "Do you think it's time to ask questions? Or that if I could stop you back there I wouldn't have done so?"

"I thought you were dead!" Matthew replied "That's why I did it!"

Mario punched Matthew on the cheek as Wolf was about to stab him with his claws, but he turned aside once again and the claws only reached the cloak as Matthew hit Wolf's back with his elbow. Then he hit his waist with the knee and threw him away as he gave Matthew a sad gaze.

"Take responsibility for your acts!" Mario said as he pointed towards me "Those girls suffered enough trying to take you back and one of them is badly injured! Do you think a tourniquet can hold her life forever? Take her somewhere she can be healed! I'll handle Wolf."

Matthew didn't reply, he took me and then he and Melanie started running away. As I lay on Matthew's arm I could still watch how the battle between Mario and Wolf raged behind us; I just hope I weakened Wolf enough so that Mario could beat him up.

A tear fell on my head and I noticed that it was Matthew who was sobbing; he just followed Melanie who seemed to know where she was going. The wound hurt me and it avoided me to talk as I had to use my voice to groan out of pain. Matthew could not talk, I was sure he was confused and I was concerned; he never wanted to be rescued, was he concerned about Wolf, Mario or both? I couldn't tell, I just saw how Melanie headed us towards a door that headed to somewhere inside siege castle; the battle at the front door seemed to rage even worse and I felt useless as I couldn't help them out.

"Matthew…" I said weakly "I'm sorry…"

"If Mario kills Wolf…" he said faintly "What should I do?"

"Don't think about that now!" Melanie asked as she kept running through the corridors "Please Matt, give me some peace of mind at least now!"

Matthew shut up at the double; I remembered how much he hated being called "Matt" he used to say "My father called me Matthew for a reason, so don't short it!", but his mind wasn't working right back then. As we kept running, we found someone on the corridor who suddenly stopped as he stared at us.

"Did you succeed?" he asked astonished.

Robert's face was shocked. His eyes were wide opened as they met with Matthew's; there was some kind of tension there. Matthew left me on the floor and then he immediately ran towards Robert and punched him on the face. None of us saw that coming, not even Robert, thus he couldn't defend himself in time.

"Matthew, stop!" I yelled.

"You won't get Wolf!" he yelled as he kept punching Robert's face "You already have Yoshi! SO WHY CAN'T YOU SETTLE WITH THAT!"

"Matthew, calm down!" Melanie yelled as she pushed him away "He came here to help us!"

"He came here because he wants Wolf for himself!" Matthew yelled as he kicked Robert's waist "Do you think I'll allow you to mess with him?"

"Bad news Matthew," Robert said as he stood up and cleaned some nose bleeding "he is no longer in your body!"

"So what?" he asked as he struggled against Melanie "He is not for you to take over!"

"It wasn't for you either!"

"He is my father!"

"Like any of us give a crap!" Robert replied annoyed "Neither Maquiel, not even your sister gives a crap if he is or not your father! He is the enemy!"

"Then why you…?"

"I'm the enemy as well."

I glared at Robert weakly as I coughed some blood. If Matthew wasn't weakened after the whole battle he would certainly have broken Melanie's hug and would have punch Robert yet again. Melanie seemed puzzled.

"What do you mean?" she asked "Matthew can't be right! You have Yoshi back on you!"

"You don't know me at all!" he claimed as he walked away "Why don't you ask Matthew what did he do to me?"

"I did nothing!"

"You did this to me!" Robert yelled as he ran towards Matthew.

He was about to hit him, but instead he hit Melanie as she threw Matthew away. Robert seemed shocked as Melanie leaned on a wall to avoid falling; Matthew rushed and tackled him as Robert hit him with his elbow on the back, but Matthew didn't care and he bit Robert's waist. He screamed out of pain and he hit Matthew's face with his elbow. He rolled and the both of them got up to keep fighting.

"I'm dying here!" I yelled weakly.

Matthew got distracted and he got punched by Robert who ran away from us towards the door.

"Robert, wait!" I asked "Please!"

But he was already gone; he didn't even stop to listen. At the same time I could hear how Melanie broke apart and started sobbing as Matthew got up.

"I can't let him do it…" he said "I have to stop him."

I grabbed his ankle and then Matthew looked back to me; his eyes were so hurt. Wolf was right, I did this in order to grasp my own happiness, because I only made Matthew sad this way, yet I couldn't deny how warm my heart felt when he held me on his arms once again, but those arms weren't full of love, but guilt.

"Melanie." Matthew said "Please, lead me wherever we can heal her."

Melanie nodded and they got back on the run as I lay on his arms. It wasn't that much of a run, it took us five minutes to get there and Melanie opened the door.

"Snake!" she said "Do you have any heart container?"

"We don't," a voice said "but we can always relay on Navi."

Melanie went straight to Link and she hugged her as Matthew laid me on the bed. Sophie stared at him and tears came by her face as she run towards him to hug him. Snake was still at the same corner, concerned about my state; he was about to stand up, but as soon Link got near me he unleashed Navi.

"Looks like you made it." He said cheerfully.

I opened my mouth to let Navi get in and then I swallowed. It was a weird sensation, usually we got healed while being unconscious, and the feeling of having the fairy around my throat resembled the one when you ate a fly. I stared at Matthew who was speechless as her mother kept him in her arms, afraid that he would go away again.

"I'm so sorry." She said sobbing.

But Matthew was still not able to react at all; he was still concerned about Wolf. His eyes were still showing such a great suffering that it heart broken me. I raised my hand towards him and then he broke his mother hug to hold my hand.

"Please don't leave us again." I said so weakly that nobody else heard "If you want, I'll get Wolf with us, but please, don't go away.

I took his head and pushed it towards my lips. Matthew didn't resist, he kissed me back, just as the boy on the graveyard did; he was so broken, and I needed to feel his affection so badly… it feel so good, I felt so relieved when I realized that he still loved me, that he never stopped caring about me… yet he suffered so much.

"We still need to save Ash." Link said "I left him behind in middle of the rampage on the front door."

"We need to go for Mario as well." I said as I got Matthew's lips away from me.

"Mario?" everyone asked at the same time, but Melanie.

"As soon as Navi is done" I said "We'll get them… I'll figure everything out as always… somehow."


	23. No place to hide

_**Author Note**__: First chapter in a while on Wolf's perspective, it's going to be interesting. Hope you enjoy it._

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**No place to hide**

There he was, standing up high in front of me, whit that gaze looking down on me. It was the second time in my life I've met a guy who is not afraid of me at all. I laughed as I stared at him, he wasn't Mario anymore; the Mario I met on this world was afraid of acting alone, he was afraid of turning back on the humans. The Mario I knew always feared, even while he was on Matthew's body, but not this guy. I just felt his overwhelming power when his fire sword was stopped by my arm. He had a whole new brand of powers in his sleeve and he was beating me up. Maquiel's fight left me all tired out, I could barely stand firmly, and then when I looked on Mario's eyes, which were no longer blue, but brown, I just laughed again.

"You sure look like him." I said while my hands closed "But you don't care for him as I do."

He didn't answer me; he just stood still while pointing his sword against me. I glared at him and I ran against him while shouting: "YOU ALWAYS SOUGHT TOWARDS HIS DEATH!"

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"Your name is Wolf O'Donnel, and your job is to obey me."

"Yes, father."

He was the one who brought me to this god forsaken world. He was the one who ever created the illusion of happiness to me, and even though his cold blue eyes were always indifferent to people's lives, they were always interested in me, he took care of me. I was different from the others, he created me on the material world so I could accomplish the mission and he created me himself. I was the only one who was truly free and I was grateful for that, even if I were made up by his idea, built piece by piece I was existing and I liked it, I always looked up to him, I always worshipped his person. I loved my father, and you probably won't believe I could eat him later. Yes, he was Lex.

The fact that I'm speaking so smoothly about him is kind of weird, isn't it? I'm supposed to hate him, but I never did, I always loved him, even now. He was and is my father, my creator.

I never understood what he wanted me to do, he was always looking after me, he had me hide on a warehouse where nobody, but him, went in. I was always waiting for his order, I was looking forward to obey him, and I was made for that reason. But every time I saw him, he just talked, and I listened because that's what he wanted. He went on and on about this kid he knew nothing about, but loved as his own son. He just talked about how at nights his face was full of tears thinking on his loneliness, he even forgot about his own. I felt jealous about him at first, I could sense how much Lex loved him, and here I was, only listening as he pulled it out through his chest. But then, Lex stopped talking about the loneliness of that boy and he started talking about how he missed him and what he missed about him. Eventually, I became anxious to meet that boy, I wanted to meet him, and I wanted to bring him back to Lex. The only thing I knew about him was that he looked exactly the same as Lex and that his name was Matthew.

It was 2005, one year before the whole process of the rebellion started. I could see what I was truly made for; I was made to fill Lex's emptiness, the whole void that could not be filled until he had Matthew at his side. I would have stayed with him forever if that could ease that void, but I could see how I was never able to do so. And then he seemed to be going into a rampage.

"That Salaric bastard wants to use him!"

I was shocked; I didn't know what to answer.

"This entire project is no longer a lucrative project, but a terrorism faction! They created something to keep the smashers under their control! And they will look for a human to hold that spirit that will control smashers. I know that they will aim at Matthew, his father was the first perfect hybrid, so why won't they try on his children? Those bastards!"

He punched the ground as I noticed how through his eyes a burning rage exploded, something I never saw on him before. I was scared, I didn't answer, but I shared his hatred.

"We can't allow them getting him." He said "You must avoid it at all cost Wolf, that's why I created you for."

"How shall I stop them father?"

I didn't hesitate. I didn't doubt a bit, I knew what I have to do, and it was going to be hard for me as I could not lie. Lex made me unable to lie as the beginning of a new world, a world without lies, and he made me mighty powerful so I could protect Matthew. My task was hard; I had to make the smashers to begin a rebellion. So I was going to be transferred for first time in my life into the Zero World, the world in which humans governed smashers on monotony.

"I count on you."

He knew what he was doing, he would do anything necessary to save Matthew, and so I would as his wish was that.

I arrived as any other, swimming through the black pool until I got out of it to meet the immense field. There was a small guy, with a red hat that seemed to be praying. He was all alone and he was looking to the skies.

"What should I do Palutena?"

The humans ruled them through two deities, Palutena, who kept them calm, and Tabuu, who was kept until the moment war would be declared so they could take control of them into war issues. I knew he was going to be an enemy sooner or later. Lex would definitely take him. I knew what the plan was. He was going to take Mario out of this world and make him see how rotten it was so that he could start developing the idea of a rebellion, and then I would have to act. The only unexpected result was that instead of Mario, Sonic took his place. Maybe it was destiny, maybe it was something else, but at that instant Matthew and Salaric shifted places, if Mario had gone with Lex, Matthew would probably had Sonic inside of him instead. And it was when he was back that the idea of rebellion started to being developed. His eyes full of suffer were alike Lex's, they had suffer enough to start hating humans with every single cell on his body, and it was then when I started. I only spoke the truth, I referred to humans as beings full of flaws that should disappear, but I never referred to Lex, I only used his words, what he taught me about the humans he had to bear with, the people who were only rotten by greed and power. Sonic's hatred grew and grew and almost on perfect timing, Salaric made his biggest mistake, which was a lucky shot for me and Lex. He took Zelda in order to implant her on a soldier. And so were Link and Ganondorf meant to be, but they watched the whole process and they saved Zelda, which would travel to Melanie's soul eventually. Their hatred started to move the smashers, their suffering made them feel pity and eventually they started hating humans too. The only one I was ever worried about was Red. He was so still, he never said a word to anyone, but Lucas, and he always would give me those eyes defying me. He was also one of the first to oppose us.

"If you are with them, then go away before my sword pierce your throat." Link warned.

"I'm not with them yet." He replied "War is not declared yet."

And he would always leave with that gaze of hatred against my eyes, like telling me he was aware of my scheme. It wasn't until later that I got to know that he was made by Salaric himself as a spy. He was meant to keep us in order, just as Palutena was meant to do. But neither could contain Link's anger, Sonic's sorrow or Ganondorf's grief. It was a matter of time, to prepare, and Lex eventually gave us the way to escape, bringing Mario, Samus and Fox back, Palutena's personal warriors, Lex's got them out so he could cut Palutena's influence on them. But it was too late, I knew it.

"They are the traitors!" Ganondorf pointed" They are here to help the humans? And for what reason? Because of their stupid's promises!"

I stared at Fox, as he stared back at me. It was hard for him to see me as an enemy, as in the time here I was trying to avoid him to get controlled by Palutena and the humans, but in the end we were meant to be enemies. Falco who was at my side, already corrupted into my ideals also pointed at him as his enemy, the guy he saw as his own brother. Then I said a fact:

"Your humans have made only mistakes!" Wolf shouted to Fox "They're trying to make us tool of war!"

If I hadn't said "your" I would have been unable to say it, Lex was everything to me, the only truth in theses worlds.

"I'm sorry guys" Fox told us as he started raising his voice "They finally will give me what I always wanted. I won't let you take it from me"

Falco was hurt, I could sense it, something was lacking in this world for Fox and he could not make anything to give it to him, because what Fox lusted for was power, he tasted the flavor of humans emotions and now he was addicted to them, and he would sell his human body to Palutena if it were necessary. And so Samus would, leaving a broken hearted Snake.

"Same goes for me" Samus told ready to charge her cannon "I like that world better, here is nothing but monotony"

"Nobody said anything about staying in this world" I replied; this was it, the time for Lex's plot to play out "We will invade it"

"Why can't we be on peace?" Mario asked "They can give us anything! They're our gods!"

"They only call themselves gods!" Ike shouted "There's no such a thing"

"Then we will be enemies" Mario stated.

Specks of light flew all over the room, they came from the scanner and they flew to get out of the room and they were divided around not only the facility, but the world itself.

Mario was with Fox and Samus; there were only some smashers in the room. They stared at us, the ones who were in front of them; Bowser, Snake and I.

"Will you join us, or will you oppose?" Snake asked.

"I need to get my brother back" I assured "I won't quit until I get him"

We fought on the room. People started yelling from outside, they were getting weapons while we fought. Mario took on Bowser, Fox on me and Samus on Snake. We were all set to win, we had the same resolve to end the conflict, they for the human side to win, Bowser and Snake for the smashers, and I secretly for Lex. They fight prolonged until the humans' interfered. They were holding gun machines and they shot. Bowser and Snake were able to escape jumping through the window. I hid back of the scanners, watching what happened next.

Mario, Fox and Samus took a look at them and they saw how now the gun machines were pointed at them. Then Lex smiled to us as he entered to the room. I smiled as well; it was going according our scheme.

"Sorry guys, but you failed"

They were betrayed, just as it was planned. Now those Palutena's puppets could go away and not interfere. They had to do the same as the smashers and jump through the window and escape.

Then Lex pushed everyone in the room with his telekinesis, breaking their necks. I got out of my hidden place and smiled.

"You did it father."

"Too soon Wolf, we still need to get Matthew."

"What's the idea?"

"You must find him and make him your host, that way Palutena will be unable to use him if you hold him."

"How I'm going to do that?"

Lex smiled, it was a sad smile and the eyes he usually set when there was sacrifice involved. I became scared of those eyes, fear overwhelmed me.

"Salaric is coming to kill me and he will succeed unless you are able to do something."

"Anything!" I replied at the double "Father, I'd do anything to save you."

"Then eat my heart."

I stared at him shocked; my body was shaking in denial, my eyes started flowing tears as my body started preparing itself against his will. His eyes showed suffering, a lot of it.

"I made you so you could obey me, no matter how hard my command was."

"Why?" I asked as I contained my body "WHY MUST I KILL YOU?"

If Lex died I'd had absolutely nothing to count on, nobody to live for, I just couldn't take it, my face was all wet through the tears that came from my only eye. I was about to jump against him, but I was waiting for the answer, fighting against my body. The door started to receive bullets, and it would be eventually brought down.

"I'm sorry, all this time I just talked about Matthew and I never got to know you. But now as you eat me you will understand me son."

It was the first time he called me son. I couldn't hold it, my body had to obey his command and my fangs pierced his chest as I devoured his heart against my will. I hated it; I sensed how Lex's life was leaving his body and entering into me, giving me a mighty power I didn't desire. I cried out loud as I ate his heart and when I finally ended I howled. And then, for an instant, I remained calmed. I could feel Lex's feelings for Matthew, that small, naïve and kind child.

"Oh god."

I loved him, I held Lex's body tightly as I understood how he could threw his life away so easily for that boy, he really loved him, a feeling, a need to protect him, to avoid him to be hurt so deep that I can't describe with words. I held tight on Lex's body, my father's corpse, which was a treasure to me. I had to bury it and then accomplish his wish, I would save Matthew, he wouldn't become Palutena's vessel, he would become mine.

Salaric finally knocked down the door and he was shocked to see me with Lex's body. I threw him against the window with telekinesis. We were on the fourth floor, I imagined that it would kill him, but it didn't. Later I would know that it only caused amnesia. Before any human could arrive I got through the window and escaped. The rest you already know.

* * *

And here I was, beaten up by the mere Palutena's puppet I swore to destroy.

"You were ready to sell Matthew to Palutena, weren't you?" I asked fierily "You acted as you didn't know what Pit was plotting, but you always encouraged Matthew to act as he said."

"Now is different." He answered "Nor Matthew, neither Maquiel will be Palutena's vessel. I will kill her first."

"Like you could!"

"I'd rather try and die than risking Matthew's most beloved person!"

"I don't care if she dies! Matthew is the one who is being target!"

"You don't want him to be hurt, do you? Then think! Act as a…!"

I didn't let him finish; it was a stupid mistake warriors often took on battle when they think they have the upper hand. He was holding my right arm and then I slashed his waist with my left hand forcing him to release me, but the injuries were closed by fire and his eyes were as strong as before. I hated him, I knew we were fated to fight, I knew I had to win, for me, for Matthew, and mostly for my father. And so I covered my whole body with aura as I trapped Mario on my telekinesis. I thrust him towards me and I started hitting his body as hard as I could and I tried to slash it with my claws, but for some reason I couldn't open severe injuries around his body. Then he kicked my chin and broke through the telekinesis as he covered his body on flames and punched me on the face. I stepped backwards as he kept punching me with blazing fits; it hurt a lot, but I managed to stop the blows and then I prepare to unleash not my final smash, but my final form.

"I'll crush you!"

But it happened way too fast; a beam blade pierced through my waist and I coughed blood as Mario jumped backwards. There was something I didn't foresee. The blade was being held by Robert, he surely picked up Vatra that was somewhere around.

"Fuck you!" I said.

He removed the blade as a steam of blood came out of my waist and I fell on the sand. I was reaching my limit, for the first time on my life; I saw my life in danger. I fell on my knees as I pushed Robert and Mario away from my through telekinesis.

_I can not fail. I can not fail. _Those words mumbled around my mind as I got up and I stopped the bleeding through telekinesis as well, but I couldn't stop being exhausted. I glared at them with hatred.

"You know why I came here." Robert said as he swung the blade "I'll cut you as many times as necessary and I'll take your soul!"

"Robert, stop!" Those words came from Mario "This isn't the way is supposed to be!"

"Don't talk as there is some fate ruling us!" Robert replied "You don't know squab about me!"

"I won't let you." Mario replied.

I could see how Robert shape shifted and Mario seemed troubled. His eyes burnt as he stared at Yoshi's form.

"You said…" he mumbled "Don't' worry Mario. I'm here to protect you buddy." I stared at how his fist closed as it burnt in flames "What does this resemblance protection buddy?"

I didn't interfere; I had not much strength left on my condition so I walked away weakly as Mario faced Robert. I knew he wouldn't last long against Mario, but it was my chance to get away… and as I was doing I got a glimpse on a party running towards them. It was Maquiel's party and along with them there was Matthew as expected.

I tried to hurry to get through him, but the wound was barely kept the telekinesis. I fell on the sand as the blood spread and I closed my eye.

"Hand me Navi!" Maquiel's voice commanded.

"You gotta be kidding me!" that was Red's voice "After all the hell this battle have been, you want to save the enemy's life?"

"Shut up! Link, please, just do it!"

I hear the beating of her feet on the sand. It was truly reckless to save me, reckless and stupid considering the whole scenario. I would track her down, kill her and then I would come for Matthew once again. I had to protect him, I could not let anything harm him, and there were so many things after him. I yelled because of the pain and I felt how my body was being turned aside as the fairy was released.

"Are you nuts?" Sophie's voice asked "Maquiel he is…!"

"I know who he is!" she replied "But I won't let Matthew watch him die!"

I opened my eyes slightly as the fairy was put in my snout. I struggled to raise my arm and it reached for Maquiel, so I could slash her face, but not only I wasn't strong enough, but there was something in me that didn't want to. As I stared at her face I remembered all those years with Matthew's grief over her. As my eye stared at her I could see so much concern on her face, so much pain, suffering, and yet love. It was like it was all hidden through the pain, but it was there.

"Listen to me." She said whispering so nobody else would hear "I know this is far from over, and I only will save you this time. I know that you will come for us, that you will try to break us again, but I swear to god next time Matthew won't be around to see me killing you."

She punched me with mighty strength and I fell unconscious.


	24. Edge of ignorance, edge of rejection

**Edge of ignorance, edge of rejection**

"Why did you do that?" Matthew asked.

"If he is unconscious then once he is healed he won't attack us." I replied "What? Did you think we were taking him with us?"

"That's what you said!"

Every single face was looking towards me now; it was a hard situation, I knew what I was doing and it made perfect sense on my head, but how would I explain it to them? Also there has something to be done about the battle that took place ahead of us; we had to stop Mario and Robert.

"He'll be ok; he has an army here, doesn't he?"

"I won't…"

I punched him with might on the waist and he fell unconscious. I was afraid that he would leave or something and I acted on despair. I grabbed him from the waist and I put him on my shoulder as we all gathered together.

"Mario!" I shouted "We are moving on!"

Mario just face punched Robert's face; his fist was filled with flames and they covered Robert's whole body forcing him to shape shift back and then Mario kicked his head in order to make him pass out. I sighed; he had the exact same reaction I had. He took Robert on his arms and then he came with us.

"Play Link!"

"Wait!" Sophie yelled "Where are Meta Knight and Kirby?" she asked.

"Right here."

Kirby came along with Meta Knight on the dragoon. We all finally gathered and Link started playing as the battle on the gates intensified. Mist covered us all and then, just as the first time, we all became light specks flowing around the space, and this time everyone followed Kirby's lead.

It was a matter of seconds and we were back on home. There were Pit, Lucas and Pikachu waiting for us on the couch as we appeared out of nowhere around the wooden floor of the living room.

"So you made it…" Pit said "as expected you had to force him."

"Did you send Mario there?" I asked.

"Indeed," just as I expected "how much time you think you were there?"

"I don't know…" I said "A couple of hours?"

"Maquiel," Lucas replied shocked "you all were there around four days."

My eyes opened wide as everyone else's did. I stared at Meta Knight.

"Is that how it works? Four years were millennia over there?"

"No, just four years," he replied "Ed must have done something."

"I have a couple of questions." Ash said "Why are Meta Knight and Snake with us? Who the hell is Ed? And last, but not the least, what the hell are we going to do with Matthew? Well, if you ask me he seemed a little reluctant of leaving Wolf's lap."

"Well, nobody asked you." Sophie answered, earning Ash's glare "Second of all Meta Knight saved my life, so he pretty much earned his place here. And for the last I think we should check on Vincent's journal for Ed's name."

Snake walked away from the group and he sat on the corner of a wall. It was his way to hide his blind spot, his way to stay alert of everything around. He followed us because he had to talk to Samus, something I promised her I would assure, but there was no way to say if we could really trust him; as for Meta Knight I trusted Sophie's judgment. We had yet to take care of three people who passed out and figure out all the answers.

"Mario, I'll need you to keep an eye on Matthew until he wakes up."

"Got it."

"Sophie, you check on Salaric, Melanie and Link, you both don't lose sight of Robert."

"Ok." They all answered.

"Everybody else stays here." I said "We'll ask Pit everything we want to know."

Pit sat on the couch satisfied; we accomplished his mission after all. I walked towards him; my eyebrows fell on straight diagonal lines as my hands reached for his neck.

"If you think you can use Matthew as Palutena's puppet…"

"It's not necessary," he said "that is a task you must complete now."

"Then why?" I asked "Why you wanted us to save him? He is no longer a candidate for being her vessel, is he?"

"Let's say he is plan B."

"I thought I was plan B!"

"You _were_,that's right." His reply didn't make sense "But I've grown to like you better for the role."

"Why? Is it because I'm a woman?"

"Gender has nothing to do with it." Pit said while containing a laugh; I glared at him "You've overgrown Matthew by now, you might become even stronger than him, and so you are the best option right now."

"Then… the best option back then was him, wasn't he?"

"That's right." Pit replied as his eyes finally met mines "Power and growth goes together; every single one of you have developed your final smash through the understanding or resolution of some inner conflict you experienced. Matthew was the first one to develop his final smash, and his final form as well, which means he was the one who grew faster."

"So what?" I asked "Gabriel could use his final smash longer than any of us, and he didn't seem to grow at all!"

"Growth is not the only path to power; you should know that by now."

It was true; Robert (for example) drank Lucario's blood in order to get stronger, and Wolf ate, god knows how many human hearts. It wasn't that hard to imagine a way for Gabriel to get stronger without personal growth.

"You acquired your final form by now." Pit continued "A final form is nothing a regular smasher can develop, because it's only achieved when a human bestow his powers to his/her smasher, that's what you did with Samus and what Matthew did with Mario."

"Why did you say I've overgrown Matthew? He acquired all these things long before I did!"

"It's not about back then, but right now." Pit interrupted "You are standing, right now, a higher floor than Matthew; he never really fought on his own, but with Wolf's guidance. You fight along with Samus powers, but she doesn't tell you what to do, she leaves the fighting to you and she lends you power, they were the other way around. The one who developed those freaking great powers was Wolf, not Matthew, so his evolution halted. He didn't become stronger, Wolf did.

"Did you say evolution?"

Pit remained on silence. There was something I was wondering since the incident four years ago and nobody told me anything. Smash X Evolution. X, two lines that represents intertwined fates. Wolf told me that Smash X Evolution was the name for the shape shifters, but… there must have been something else to that, after all Matthew didn't shape shift like any of us did back then, and Melanie told me that the same thing happened to Robert. What was it really the smash x evolution? Pit knew, and I figured that if I got to understand it, it might be the key to victory.

"Tell me what Smash X Evolution is." I commanded.

"He is not going to." It was the first time someone else spoke up. Ash rose his voice over everyone else "If he is remaining in silence that's mean he is not going to spit it out easily, so let's ask something else and we'll go back to that later."

I nodded, it made sense, and we would only lose precious time we could use in order to solve more questions.

"How the hell did Mario wake up?" Ash asked "He was in coma for four years, and all the sudden he waked up strong as hell to save us? You had something to do with it, didn't you?"

"I sent him there." Pit said "How did he get stronger? Beats me."

"I don't buy it." Ash replied.

"It's the truth, wherever you believe me or not is not my trouble."

I didn't buy it either, Pit had certainly something to do with Mario's power up, but once again he wasn't going to let any vital information spread out of his lips, something I learnt with time, he wasn't the kind of guy who would answer all your questions, he rather make you wonder even more.

"Do you know who Ed is?" Ash asked "I heard him being named, who is he?"

"A human working under Wolf's command." The answer wasn't say by Pit, but by Meta Knight "While most of the smashers on Wolf's command act as a militia, the humans are there to make research, and among them Ed is the chief leader of one of the most important projects…"

"And that is?" I asked impatiently.

Meta Knight seemed reluctant, mainly he glared at Pit and he seemed confused wherever he could or not tell this in front of him, but when he saw Kirby nodding he took a deep breath and got ready to talk, yet before he could, Snake spoke up.

"… Destroying Palutena."

Pit's eyes opened wide as his face seemed to lose the grip. I was also shock, but not even near of Pit's, he was about to lose it. I never saw anything like this on him, his body shook violently as his hands reached for his halberd and his burning eyes glared at Snake, whom stayed sit like nothing happened.

"What does that mean?"

"He knew you planned sending Maquiel there as Palutena." Snake continued "So, he was preparing a trap. The only place where Palutena can be trapped forever is the Zero World, so Ed was in charge of suppressing Palutena there."

Pit seemed extremely ill, like he was about to puke. His skin became white pale as his eyes burnt in hatred and shock. He spread some kind of invisible aura that frightened me, I could feel a pair of hands around my neck ready to squeeze. I gulped as Pit tried to keep it together. Snake was the only one who didn't seem to get affected by it and he looked at me.

"I betrayed Wolf because of that, which answers Red's questions."

"By Red, do you mean Ash?"

Snake frowned and he stared at Ash.

"Is that how they call you?"

"Never the less," Kirby interrupted "does that mean you care about Maquiel?"

"How could I possible do?" Snake asked with a little laugh "I care about Samus. If Maquiel had showed up on Zero World as Palutena, she would have got trapped there along with Samus and Palutena herself, the three of them, for who knows how long?"

"So Wolf had even that foreseen." Pit finally said "I underestimated him again, he really reads every scenario… but we have the upper hand now! Matthew is with us!"

"There is no 'us'." I replied "You are no worth trusting, you are not one of us!"

"Oh please!" Pit replied mocking "Trust is worth nothing! You can't possibly trust Matthew or Robert! What about Kirby, Meta Knight or Snake? How have they shown being worth trust? While I prepared you for the battle field, all what these guys have shown is getting in the way!"

I punched Pit on the face and he was sent flying towards the wall. The crush was hard, but it merely affected Pit at all. My eyes were the one burning now and my eyebrows were all the way down showing how pissed I was.

"You are not afraid anymore." Pit said while standing up.

"Go away." I commanded "I don't want to see you anywhere around here, or else…"

Pit disappeared; I actually thought it would take more than that… it couldn't be right, he must have been scheming something, otherwise he would have never left like that. I sighed as I sat on the couch. Everyone else relaxed a little bit; Meta Knight leaned on the door, while Kirby sat on the stairs. Ash, Lucas and Pikachu sat next to me and Snake remained on the same spot, looking at me.

"You'll have your chance." I stated "I promised Samus."

"That's all I need." Snake said.

"What time is it?" I asked out loud as I stared at the clock "Oh men! I didn't think it'd be that late!"

I stood up and thought it carefully. It was 1:00 A.M and I didn't know how to arrange everyone on every room, after all we were more than what we used to be.

"Don't worry about us." Meta Knight said "We can sleep on the floor, it's not like we haven't done it before."

"It'll be just for tonight." I said "There's a lot to figure out here, and… the hell I'm sleepy!"


	25. Melody of the wild

**Melody of the wild**

It was already late, 3:00 A.M. He was surely asleep, but when I went into his room he was there all alone, and awake, sitting on his bed looking through the window to the darkness beyond. His face was so full of sorrow…

"Where is Mario?" I asked.

"Right here." Matthew replied as he pointed his chest. His face seemed to be terribly hurt. "I'm so confused right now…"

"I'm listening."

"You can't imagine what these years have been for me." Yeah, I could not possibly figure that out "When Mario 'died', I felt that something inside me died too, and when I saw him alive, when I remembered him all the sudden… I felt so relieved, so happy… but when I saw him fighting Wolf I became suddenly too scared, like I was losing my father again. Wolf… has been the closest thing I ever had to a father since he died, thus I don't want to lose him. I can't bear that again, yet Mario is like…"

The words were abandoning him as the tears came by his face. I came to get used to people's tears by this far, it was so usual, after all these years we all cried and shed tears so much, like if world was reaching its end. And yet it moved me, no matter how much tears I saw, his tears made me feel alive. I sat next to him and I hugged him. His face rested on my chest as my chin rested on his forehead. I sniffed his hair a little bit, remembering the smooth scent that came from that cupper like hair.

"I don't know what to do…" Matthew's voice was broken "Wolf always knew what to do, he guided me through everything, he always knew what to do…"

"You have to move forward." I said "You can't depend so much on anyone. When you were a kid and you joined the judo dojo you were helpless… your father was the reason why; whenever he came around you didn't care about anything else. I can understand that, but you must be able to walk for yourself."

"I don't want to…"

"I know."

I really did; whenever I was around Richard everything felt good, I felt loved and cared, in a way mom could not show me. My dad was everything for me too, until… the memories made me shed tears too and I laughed.

"What's so funny?" Matthew asked.

"I just remembered my own father." I said as I rubbed Matthew's face "D id I ever tell you… that he abused me?"

He was the first person I ever told that. Matthew raised his head and stared at me confused as he saw my tears coming down.

"He was everything to me." I said "He made me feel safe… cared… and then one day he kidnapped me; mom told him he could not see me any longer and thus he took me away and…"

My voice broke on crying as my face leaned on Matthew's shoulder. His hands rubbed my back as I cried out loud with a growing pain on my chest.

"There, there." Matthew said softly "I won't go anywhere."

I looked at him; those words were the only thing I really needed.

"I was thinking…" he said "if that day off, the one we had so much time ago, I just said that I loved you, everything would be different…" he sighed "things can be different now…"

I kissed him and he kissed me back. We went all out; he was starting dressing me out, opening the buttons from my blouse as I ripped of his shirt and got him off his pants as he got off mines. We were completely naked before each other. I kissed his neck as I could feel how he started feeling excited. As time passed by, so our touching did and there was only one tiny interruption before we made love, protection.

It felt so right; below the blanks I could feel how he was spreading it all out, four years of waiting, four years separated, when all we ever wanted was being this close, feeling like we were one.

As soon as we finished I felt how Matthew fell asleep, mumbling a little bit. I was tired, but I managed to get away without awaking him. Then I dressed up as I headed towards the door and silently I started closing it.

"Don't worry honey." I whispered "I'll stop this for you."

And then I walked away. Melanie and Ash waited for me upstairs.

"Amazing." Ash said silently "You just used sex as a weapon!"

He was slapped by Melanie, before I could reply.

"That's my brother you sick bastard!" she sighed as she looked back at me "Are you sure about this?"

"Totally."

"You look a bit tired." Ash commented.

"It doesn't matter." I replied "The sooner I get over with this, the better. Where is he?"

"Near." Melanie replied "You'll meet him at the school backyards."

"Cool." I said "It's good to see that you can still foresee some things."

"You sure you want to go alone?"

"I must." I said as I stretched "You must look out for Matthew."

"Wolf is not an easy opponent, not even without Matthew."

"I know." I said "But I'll figure it out, like always."

And so I opened the door and walked through the night's darkness; every step made me feel loner and loner, it wasn't very usual for me to leave without allies, especially Melanie. I took a deep breath as my feet passed through the concrete towards the school. As I got nearer I felt nostalgic; I closed my eyes and kept walking as I thought I could hear the song bittersweet symphony by the verve. I laughed out loud, what a better music theme for me, walking towards the battle, nothing ever stopping me, and I would never stop walking until it was all over. I smiled as I arrived to the school. It had been four years since we all graduated; those were innocent times.

I climbed up the grid and got in without any trouble. Then, with just a couple of steps, I was on the backyards. I took a seat on a bench as I waited for Wolf to appear. My eyes were tired, they started closing, but I managed to keep them open. I could understand why Wolf would attack us so late on the night, yet it made me so mad, I just wanted to sleep. I blinked and then I stood up.

"Flashy as always." I sighed

Wolf was in front of me, it took him a split second to get here apparently. His only eye glared at me with hatred, as my eyes stared them with pity.

"What's with that look?" He asked.

"Wolf this fight is stupid." I said quickly "I don't understand why we are fighting anymore."

He frowned, but he didn't move at all, probably he thought I was trying to confuse him. I kept talking.

"We first met on the subspace four years ago, and we fought you because you appeared out of nowhere and you seemed like an enemy, but even afterwards… there was never a reason to really fight you, we were the ones who struck you first, we were just afraid you would harm us, but even now you always avoided it, so why are we fighting?"

"What's the meaning of this?" he asked pissed "Couldn't you think of this before you got Matthew back? Couldn't you for an instance think on someone else's pain?"

"Wolf, you killed people in front of my eyes," I replied "I couldn't accept it, even if they were strangers and you also killed off Peach; you can't imagine how much damage you caused to Mario and Bowser. I couldn't join you, I just… remembered my own pain and I couldn't take it, I hated you because of the suffering you inflicted on so many families, and on our own allies! But now..."

"Now what!"

"Why don't you come with us?" I asked "You can take care of Matthew by being at his side! We are no longer Pit's puppet; we can take him and Palutena down together!"

Wolf laughed, at first it was just a giggle, but then he started laughing his laugh off. I waited until he replied, and my eyes kept set on him, exploring how his body shook as he laughed, how the first thing his hands touched was his chest.

"Oh… if it only was that easy Maquiel."

"Everything is simple; we are the ones who make it complicated."

"I can't argue with that." He said "But, please tell me, do you really think I would drop everything I worked for only to please you?"

"It's not about me and you know it."

"But it is about you." He replied "Matthew might be important, but you are more important."

Now I was the one frowning.

"I'm sorry." He said "I've really tried to avoid this, but there is no other way around."

I shape shifted and avoided the first strike. The claws slashed as a pair of short swords against me and I was barely able to jump backwards. As he was about to slash again I grabbed his right hand and hit his face with my left hand, but he didn't lose time and he kicked me at the same time on the hips. He stepped backwards and I fell on my knees; then he kicked my face and I shot him a small charged shot that he reflected. Just as expected, he was mighty strong even without Matthew, but he was certainly a lot weaker, now I could keep with most of his attacks with not so much trouble.

I stood up and I caught a split second chance to dodge his claws and to start punching his face. My fists came so fast that he couldn't stop them until he turned his reflector on and sent me backwards. Then he caught me on his telekinesis and pounded me on the ground with might, yet I could break it in a matter of seconds with effort and then I shot him several missiles. The first ones were rejected, but three made there way around Wolf's body and then I ran towards him to release a flamethrower off the cannon which burnt Wolf's right arm. He jumped backwards and his eye burnt on rage and rampage as he prepared his final smash. The Land Master fell from the sky as I prepared. I wouldn't bother trying to survive on equal terms; I just went towards the final form. This time it wasn't hard at all, I just focused my aura and then the suit changed. Wolf shot several great blasts at me, but with the power of the gravity suit it was no trouble at all to avoid them all. Then he drove the Land Master to crash against me, yet I could stop it with both hands. He made a barrel roll and he trapped me within it and then he shot several lasers against me. That hurt, even with the mighty guard of the dark suit, I could feel like the blasts would tear me apart. Despite that I got up and kept dodging the rest of the blasts. If his final smash was already this strong, I feared his final form, so I decided to end this quickly. I jumped high, and under the moonlight I released five Zero Lasers that hit the Land Master. In a matter of seconds Wolf was leaving the airship and I took that chance to head towards him. I adjusted the gravity so I would get him as fast as I could and I grabbed his neck as I pounded him on the ground. I pointed the cannon towards his head as I charged a powerful Zero Laser, an ending blow. I would finally finish him off, but as I looked through his eye, something passed through my heart.

"Do it." He said sighing "Let's end this."

I released a charged shot instead. The shot was powerful enough to leave him unconscious, but not to kill him. I stepped backwards and I shape shifted back as I covered my mouth with my hands and stared at Wolf who lay on the floor asleep.

When our eyes meet before, I swore I got a glimpse on Matthew's scent.


	26. The silence's foreplay

_**Author Note: **__Drama, drama, and drama! And multiple POV'S! Actually more than I've ever used in a chapter. That's what this chapter is all about, so not a lot of plot progression, neither action sequences, just character development. Anyway I hope you enjoy as always._

_

* * *

_

**The silence's foreplay**

I got back home with a downwards and sad gaze on my face that could tell my defeat... I might have won the battle, but I was unable to finish Wolf off... It was just that I couldn't kill him, when our eyes met I just felt like I was about to destroy Matthew once and for all... why? His death might have been for the best; after all I tried to persuade him to join us. I knew that if I failed I had to do that, and I prepared myself for it, I told myself that if that happened I had to kill him… but I couldn't.

Melanie was waiting for me there; she was tired as well, but she wouldn't leave the couch until I appeared and told her everything.

"Not good, right?"

"He refused… I was about to kill him, but I couldn't."

"That's ok." She said wile she stood up "You are not a killer."

I didn't feel like having a heart to heart conversation, I just wanted to sleep and get over with all the daily crap. Melanie had two sleeping bags so we could spend the rest of the night together on the living room. We both got inside them and went to sleep.

It was kind of weird how fast I fell asleep.

* * *

It had been a while since I've had a dream, so I couldn't stop noticing that I was having one, especially for the content of it. I was around mist; I couldn't see a damn thing.

"It's almost August 23rd." A woman's voice said smiling "It's the beginning of the end."

"I don't want it to be end." I replied "There's a lot I have to accomplish…"

"Are you sad because you will not meet your son any longer? Or is it because that girl? Maybe both?"

The question made flinch. The shape of the woman was something I didn't expect and made my heart beat strong as I felt something alike stimulation; it was Maquiel's shape. Suddenly, all those feelings Matthew had for her beat with mighty strength on my heart as I blushed. I fell on my knees as my only eyes sought for her; I could remember when she hugged me on the graveyard, the maternal love she covered me around... but she was hugging Matthew, and yet I felt it like she was hugging me, and the same lust Matthew had was now on my system. My weak hands trembled with stress as I reached for her face. My eyes burnt as I tried to reach that beautiful innocent face. I tried to keep it inside, to avoid this pathetic feeling... but I couldn't, not as she stretched her hand towards mine and as they touched I just couldn't lock those feeling away.

"That day you'll lose one of us." That was Matthew's voice who also came out of the mist "Who are you ready to give in?"

"Neither." I replied weakly "I'm not giving up either."

When she touched my face I knew I couldn't hate her, Matthew's love and lust were mine as well, but why? Why now? We had encountered so many time, we battled time to time, so why now? If I knew before I could come up with something, but the date was so damn close...

I thought waking up would be the best part, but it was actually the worst. At the very moment I realized the feeling was still on my chest I punched the wall, breaking it and creating a hole. I was so frustrated, I breathed in and out fast trying to expulse it, but I couldn't. After so much time with him, it happened. Just as Lex's feelings for Matthew, now Matthew's feelings for Maquiel were imprinted on my heart and mind. But she couldn't love me the way I did; she already loved Matthew, not to mention I'm not exactly her species. I couldn't kill her back then, and I wouldn't be able to do it afterwards.

"I have to come up with something." I mumbled.

And so I lay on the bed; August 22nd was already greeting me with the morning sun.

* * *

I never forgot that dream; my dad telling me not to forget August 23rd and Gabriel telling me I had a role to play. I already knew the role I was supposed to play, I was meant to become Palutena's vessel, but what was with the date? I couldn't avoid thinking about it as it was one day away.

I woke up at 13:30. The house was already moving when I opened my eyes, Melanie and Sophie taking care of Salaric who just awoke, the smashers walking around and Matthew who remained sat on the couch.

"Why did you leave?" he asked "I didn't see you around the bed this morning."

"I went to the bathroom and then I didn't want to wake you up."

"I wouldn't have mind." He was so happy that he didn't even notice my lame lie "I never thought it would be that… intense."

"Did I fulfill your expectative?"

"You went so over it… wow, I can't find words to express it. It was just more than awesome."

"Yeah, I felt it like that too." I said smiling "You were a beast…"

"The details of your sex life are not of our business."

We both shut up at the moment and blushed on embarrassment. Just as always, Ash had no tact, but he was right, we shouldn't have been talking about it out loud. We laughed a little bit and then we changed the subject.

"So… what do you want to do?" Matthew asked.

I knew the next day something would happen, but there were no schedules for today. Even if we were attacked by Wolf's, Ike's, or in an unlikely scenario, Pit's party we couldn't do much, but wait until they do so or until Melanie or Sophie had a premonition, hence we had some free time for ourselves.

I gave it a deep thought; what would I have liked?

"What about a date?" I asked.

"On this situation?"

"Well, we can't do much about it, just wait till something happens, so why not? I'm not just one night stand, am I?"

"Ok then..." he said "Where would you like to go?"

"I have a few ideas."

* * *

Maquiel and Matthew went off the place and I could tell there were not returning soon. I didn't know what to do now, everyone had something to do but me. What was I doing here? Besides waiting for Kirby's orders I just leaned on the wall, waiting for something to happen, just as Snake who patiently waited for the moment he and Samus could have their reunion. Sophie and Salaric crossed across the living room and Sophie gave me a faint smile as she headed towards another room. Salaric walked towards me and I stared at him.

"So…" he said weakly "Sophie told me that you saved her life."

"That's right."

"Thank you."

"Don't you want to know why?

"Actually… yes I want, but there's no need to."

I didn't reply and we remained on silence for a while. The only sound around the air was our breathing. I sighed as Salaric spoke up again.

"Would you protect her again?"

"Yes."

He remained silent again, he was probably wondering why, but he wasn't going to ask. He tried to pretend he didn't care about it, but he sucked at it, I could easily tell that he was worried about my true intentions, but even if I told him the truth, how would he believe me? Even I had a hard time accepting my feelings towards his wife… the word was harmful for me, just thinking that more and more barriers were created among us, not to mention the million reasons I already knew of why we couldn't be together. I'd be embarrassed if Salaric saw beneath my mask.

"You…"

"Ok Salaric, spit it out." I finally said "I'll answer honestly."

"Would you… become a shape shifter?"

I frowned; I didn't see that request coming.

"I think you already know, but I used to be Sonic's shape shifter."

"I was aware."

"I hate fighting, but there is no other way around. As her husband I have to protect Sophie, but I'm powerless, so I thought… maybe if you saved her, you'd like to do it again."

"I love her. " I whispered.

Salaric heard and both his mouth and eyes opened wide. He seemed quite shocked by my statement, even more when he noticed I didn't take it back. I didn't care if he knew; after all I already had nothing to lose.

"For real?"

I nodded.

"Then, is that a yes?"

"Doesn't it bother you?" I asked a bit upset "You'll be sharing your body with someone who loves the same person as you and in the same way, is that what you want?"

"I shared my body for four years with a grieving soul that made my daily life a living hell. I think I can take on a little jealousy."

I laughed; he was so naïve thinking that it was just "a little jealousy".

"The only thing I really care about is being able to protect Sophie. If we join forces then it might get easier, we both want to protect her, don't we?"

"Yes we do." I smiled, he was so naïve and a bit stupid, but he seemed rather a nice guy "I think we got a deal".

"Great!" Salaric said "Should we do it now?"

"No." I said "The best thing to do right now is preparing a strategy."

"But we never have done so."

"How has that been working for ya?"

He didn't reply.

"That's what I thought." I said firmly "Gather everyone, we'll make a plan to counter attack Pit, we can become shape shifters later."

* * *

"It could be worse." I said sighing "You could have shot me."

Although it started as a good date next to the river on the "Parque Intercomunal de la Reina" his attitude was killing the mode, not to mention his last question. We lay on the grass as the scent of barbecue expanded around the park; we stared at the river as Matthew held my hand.

"I'm sorry Maquiel, but you know I need to do this."

"Why? I could…"

"… You couldn't."

I frowned and then I stared at him, as my mouth opened wide and he rubbed my cheeks softly.

"You knew where I went."

"And what you did." He added as he kept rubbing "And I understand, you tried and then when you saw no point… you fought, but you couldn't kill him, just as he couldn't fight for real."

"What do you mean?"

"I share this connection with Wolf," he explained "even though we're not in the same body, I can still see through his eye at times, just as he can see through mines."

"So… you watched the whole thing."

I felt embarrassed as I embraced my legs on my arms and I looked aside, staring the calm flow of the river.

"Over our time together, somehow, he got attached to my feeling towards you and…"

"He fell in love with me." I ended "I could see that through his only eye, he had the same look you had…"

"Hence you couldn't kill him."

Matthew embraced me around his arms as I sighed and I lay my head on his chest, hopping that time could be halted, waiting for things to finally come to peace, and to live a daily life like this, around Matthew's arms, surrounded by the sun shine and the steak scented air we were breathing.

"Since the beginning, it was supposed to end this way."

"Don't say it like its destiny." I asked as I embraced him "Fate is a bitch."

"I know, but you can't deny that I might be the only one who can stop him."

"I don't want you to fall in his hands again."

"And I won't… while I was on the graveyard, my soul was in a deep grief, the rain stomped on me with mighty fear. Wolf is the closet thing to a father I had since mine died, but I need to show him that he doesn't need to protect me."

"What does Mario think about it?"

"He was the one who told me I must do it… and it's harder than what you could ever imagine."

I stared at his eyes, trying to tell wherever he was lying or not, but I was not such a good reader expressions as he was, and I knew that it was a 50-50 chance, and even if Matthew was telling the truth there was no way to assure he would win, Wolf was still strong, but I knew I couldn't do it, not while staring at Wolf's only eye with that hurt puppy look on his face, the same look Matthew used to make while being hurt. I gulped and then I took my chances as my heart beat fast in terror.

"I have one condition."

"What?"

"We won't use protection this time while making love."

Matthew's face was astonished.

"I want you to have a reason to come back."

"You are my reason to come back." He replied "Maquiel we are not ready to be parents, I'd make the same mistakes my dad made and… I don't want a child born in middle of the war, not to mention we don't have jobs, we don't know a thing about babies, and we're not mentally prepared. I rather marry you first."

I frowned as he broke our hug and he got in his knee. He grabbed my hands

"Would you marry me Maquiel?"

I was speechless, astonished, shocked, but my head nodded and he kissed me as a lone tear came by my head. As I felt our tongues together I could tell how the burning love was around me. We didn't want to get separated… then I knew he was for real, but it might not be enough. I feared that even if he loved me as much as I did it wouldn't be enough resolve for him to come back, but this may be the only way.

"We are engaged." I said with broken voice as the tears fell quickly around my cheeks. "When did you come up with this?"

"When I left." he said blushing a bit "I always thought about us being together and I always wanted the chance to... propose." he laughed a little bit "With so much anticipation, I could at least got you a proposal ring."

"It's ok." I replied.

I stared at him shocked. Over this entire time he also wanted to be back with me; I understood that everything was nothing but a matter of perspective, there was no good or evil intentions; Matthew and I loved each other and we only acted as we did due to the circumstances. If that were the case, then I may believe that he really belonged with me and that he wouldn't betray us, yet…

"You'll be a great fiancée and wife."

His words made the scene smoother, but I couldn't stop thinking about everything. The threads that attached us to tragedy were so complex that I feared I couldn't break them all.


	27. Back on the rush

**Back on the rush**

August 23rd. That was the first thing I had in mind while waking up; I was next to Matthew who was still asleep. We ended up using protection; after all I was also scared to be a mother so soon. We were embraced and I sighed as I thought about the day. This day he would show where his loyalty really belongs, I just was afraid that I wasn't a strong attachment to keep him with us, but how could I control that? He could escape at any minute; I couldn't keep an eye on him 24/7, so I figured I just had to trust him. I tried to figure a way to keep him away from the battlefield, but none came to my mind. I sighed as I got up, then I headed to the bathroom and took a quick shower, there after I got dressed up. Camo trousers, a belt, black T-shirt, blue blouse, my usual outfit. Matthew woke up as I stared at him. He yawned.

"You are up early." I commented.

"I can't sleep past 8 o clock." I replied "It's annoying, there are times I'd like to rest for several hours, and I just can't sleep past that time."

"I see."

"Well, it's not that bad either." He said as he got up, yawning yet again "You don't need an alarm to wake up."

"I guess…"

"Is something wrong?"

His smile seemed so sincere… I was afraid that he was trying to deceive me, to show me that he was worth trust when he wasn't… in the end Pit was right, trust wasn't worth anything; countless times we relied on people whose trust was not certain, at times helpful, at times awful. This time I had to take one of the biggest risks I've ever took. I gulped as I opened Matthew's closet and got some clothes for him.

"You better go there with something comfortable and easy to move." I said as I checked his pants and shirts "No jeans, no long sleeves…" I found a perfectly fitting outfit after checking his closet for a bit "here."

I took out a light blue shirt with no sleeves and elastic brown trousers for him, but I also added a belt. I left them all next to him on the bed.

"Take a shower, put some deodorant and get dressed… oh, and don't forget this."

Since we got back I had this hidden around his clothes, something I wish to keep with me; I left Vatra next to Matthew's outfit. He seemed surprised and a little bit sad for me.

"That's your vote of trust, isn't it?" he asked.

I nodded.

"I know it's hard to trust on me again, I got it, I'm not even sure if I would in your situation… so thank you, Maquiel."

I was about to say "you are most welcome", but the words just couldn't come, I wasn't able to. Matthew drew himself near to me and he kissed my cheek.

"I love you." He said faintly on my ear "I won't leave you again, my dear fiancée."

I couldn't reply, although I wanted to. It was just too hard to trust in him again, to begin thinking, after four years of absence "hey, it's Matthew! He'll be fine." It wasn't that fantasy any longer, we were no longer on the typical hero like story; anything could happen, that's how I could tell this was reality, because our choices were not written down.

He left to take a shower and I sighed as I headed to wake everyone else up.

While waking Melanie and Link up I noticed the empty mattress next to them and I felt that something was really missing here. Would the five of us ever get back together? The shape shifters team, Mario, Fox, Yoshi, Zelda and Samus, all of them fighting together to end this madness… there was a brief time when we all fought together… such good old times when we still lay on the edge of ignorance. I had a faint smile at the memory of the picture of us sinking on the river.

Just as his brother did, Melanie woke up yawning twice; Link, on the other hand, woke up rather abrupt and he got up in no time. It took me a minute to process that they slept together and I wondered if they had done the same thing Matthew and I did.

"Morning, Maquiel." Melanie greeted me.

"Morning, Melanie, Link." I replied back as I stretched my arms "This is the big day."

I haven't told anyone about my dream of August 23rd, no one at all, they just knew that this day we would fight against the night stalkers, the warriors of sunset, and Wolf's party all in one bloody fest. I knew somehow we would manage to get through it, but that didn't mean we would win, we might survive, but victory was far ahead. I may have to go all out at the first strike.

"We are murdering really strong smashers today…"

Murdering was a nasty word, but we had no intention of letting them live, at least not Pit.

"Yeah, I know." Melanie replied.

"Are you ok with it Link?"

I got him off guard; I never really cared what our smashers thought in the past, but that couldn't keep like this. They were alive like us, they weren't just killing machine at our commands, I had to take their feelings seriously. Link seemed moved by my consideration.

"Yeah… I chose my side, and I knew my choice would have consequences, yet… I've prepared myself to accept them."

"Good," I replied smiling "it can't be easy though."

"It has never been easy." Link replied "I just never said so."

The both of us had a faint sad smile on our faces.

I left the room and walked upstairs. Snake was, as always, at the corner of a wall, already awake like if he never slept at all. And on the couch, where Meta Knight was left last night, there was Salaric.

"Salaric!" I said cheerfully as I sat next to him "You are up! I thought you were still weak."

"I've been since some hours from now." He replied happily "But I'm ok now; Sophie and I decided not to wake you up as you needed some rest on the battlefield."

"And we are coming with you." Sophie added as she appeared through the kitchen door with a sniper rifle on her right hand and armed to the teeth with other weapons "I've already got my guns ready."

"But that's insane!" I replied "Sophie, you are pregnant! Salaric, you are no longer a shape shifter!"

"I wasn't."

Salaric stood up and he shape shifted. As soon as I saw how the electro-shower turned him into Meta Knight my eyes opened wide, and my mouth formed an "O", which couldn't start describing my astonishment. Salaric shape shifted back.

"Meta Knight and I have a deal." Salaric explained "We are joining forces in order to protect Sophie."

"Pregnant or not," Sophie spoke out "I can't let my husband, and my two children go on the fieriest battle all by themselves."

"It's too reckless!" I yelled back "Would you put your baby life on risk for this?"

"Maquiel, if we don't win, my child is screwed. You need as many people as you can, hence I'm going. There is no further discussion."

"Salaric? Are you ok with this madness?"

"No one is touching her." He stated "Not as long as I'm there. Besides, we are not going there without a plan."

"You have one?"

"I'm merely a sniper." Sophie said calmly "I'm not entering on close combat at any time."

"Besides I'll be guarding her back."

"I located the battle spots for today and mapped the zones."

Sophie drew out from her pocket a bent piece of paper and she extended it on the table where everyone could see it.

"Yesterday someone took care of isolating the block around 'Plaza de Armas' so the territory won't be seen by civilians."

"Pit."

"I would bet so." Sophie agreed "I pointed the points where I saw the three parties coming, here, here and here." She said as she marked the dots on the map "I'll be on a building roof with Salaric, point shooting most of the enemies to take them by surprise."

"We can't assure that Sophie can kill them all, for instance there is Pit," Salaric picked up "Probably he'll figure it out soon enough and he'll send someone after her."

"That's why I'll start the snipping."

I turned around as I heard Snake voice, who finally stood up and walked towards us to point a zone in the map.

"I'll be on the building at the other corner of the block; I'll start the shooting in order to draw there attention to my building, then Sophie will start taking my place when the smashers gets to my building."

"But that's suicidal!"

"Do you think I'm stupid?" he asked annoyed "The whole building is filled with bombs that I can detonate. As soon as they get into the building I will jump off it and blow it along with the smashers."

I was still not convinced, and less so was Samus who wanted to take over by now, but she remained calmed, she didn't want to start a conversation with Snake by yelling. I never figured it would take her so long to speak up, after all she was always very direct to me; either she was terribly embarrassed or Snake was just too important.

Snake pointed some locations around the map.

"Here we have the point where Ike's party is coming, next to the main statue. Pit's party will be appearing on their left, among the Palmera's trees formation, Wolf's party will be around the fountain at Pit's right, and finally there we are." He said as he pointed two points on the map "Assuming that Matthew is going to participate on the battle I divided the battle parties on three groups, each one lead by a shape shifter, teams A, B and C. Maquiel, you are the leader of team A, I'll follow your signal to start snipping, and you'll be followed by Ash who'll guard your back. Melanie is team B and leads Link and is guarded by Kirby. She is also in charge of the signal for Sophie and Salaric. For the last Matthew is team C, evidently, leading to a straight forward attack with Lucas and Pikachu. Are we clear so far?"

"The parties are too small, it'll be better if we all fight together."

"How's that been working?" Snake asked annoyed "Every time you fight together something goes terribly wrong, so short parties or not, let's give this strategy a chance."

"Sorry."

I didn't say any further word and Snake kept on his strategy meeting.

"As we know, every party has a powerful leader we must take down in order to break through their troupes, if we make it we win, I can assure that if Wolf is taken down, every single fighter will fall back. Those leaders are Wolf, Pit and Ike, plus Bowser who knows his final form. Maquiel, as Pit's student you must know a trick or two about his fighting style, so you must draw his attention, and if you can stop him for a split second…"

"I'll take the shoot." Sophie explained "My whole mission is to remain undercover so I can take the shoot on the big guys. A head shoot should be able to kill them; the trouble is getting the shoot. They are fast, they have all kind of protections, so guns would be usually ineffective against them, but it can actually end the fight if we take them out of guard."

"Every single one of us is protected against bullets." Snake explained "But that protection is not 100% acquired; we must know that a bullet is coming so that we can reject the impact."

"We proved it with Gabriel." Salaric spoke up "Sophie shot him back on the Zero World and the bullets were effective, that's because he didn't see them coming, while in normal circumstances he would just removed the bullets and keep fighting."

"So we are a distracting party." I clarified.

"Kinda." Snake replied as he took a deep breath, probably because he would talk for a long time "We want the enemy to think that you are the only ones fighting; your side is most known for having strong fighters, but few allies. You rely on brute force and overpower to seek victory, but you never tried to see through your enemies, that's why you lost so much time. If we are going to fight them on equal terms, we got to use our heads."

"I'm listening."

"We'll trick the enemy, we'll make them think you are doing just as always; rushing to the fight, doing your best and yet failing, that way they'll get cocky. The whole park is mined in the red zones of our map." I took a deep look on the map "The explosives are C4, very powerful, but probably it won't do much, so it's a distracter factor. While fighting you must take them to some spot, and when they blow up I'll start the snipping. Your signal must be done before Pit's falls on the mine."

"That's not enough to ensure victory."

"I'm not done." I was impressed by how he was keeping it all together so cool "After the C4 explodes and the smashers comes to fight me, I'll use a smash ball I had on stock and release my final smash, shooting everyone from the sky with unlikely chances to get caught in midair. I'll be able to take the minions with it, and that will decrease the number of them. Ash, Link and Lucas are all holding smash balls to release at that very moment, so we can strike back. Then Melanie, who'll be leading the attack against Wolf's party…"

"Matthew will."

Everybody stared at me confused. Snake frowned as Sophie seemed to be at a powerful shock; she had to sit down and breathe in and out a couple of times. Salaric's face was kind of priceless; it was a mixture of nausea and irritation.

"You know he'll do it." I claimed "We can tell him the plan over and over, but he'll be the one fighting Wolf, there's no doubt of it. If you can't trust him, then we might consider on throwing this plot away."

"Fine." Snake said "So Matthew leads the attack against Wolf's party and Melanie makes the signal so that Sophie starts point shooting the leaders. If in any case the bullet was to fail, or the subject became aware of it, we'll release the jug head."

"What is a 'jug head'?" I asked.

"It's an electromagnetic device that will create a whole electromagnetic camp around the smashers, covering six kilometers square." Snake drew a circle around the map "If the bullet fails, you'll have twelve seconds to go away before it activates. It'll trap any smasher around the circle and it will detonate a hydrogen bomb, so you may want to get the hell away from there."

"A hydrogen bomb?" I asked terrified "Where did you get that?"

"Did you think I just stay with crossed arms while you fought Wolf? I obviously took my time to take whatever I found useful, and I certainly knew I wouldn't like Wolf to use that bomb against us."

"It seems like everything can work out… for once… although is scary."

"Those who can think ahead of the enemy are by nature scary, like Wolf and Pit, and in this case me." He said while I could grasp a faint smile on his face for a second "My only trouble is that I do not trust Matthew as you do; you can't blame me, I saw the guy next to Wolf for four years and he seemed at peace, powerful, and plenty. You just went over there and took that away from both of them, how can you be sure that Matt isn't already planning to deceive us?"

"He could already have run back with Wolf."

"Do you know how much are you risking here?" Sophie asked me angered "If something goes wrong…"

"I don't want to know!" I replied with might "For once I'd like to think that we hold a chance and that we'll make it! I've already fallen to despair and it wasn't nice. If Matthew goes back with Wolf, I'll be sure to bring him back again myself, but right now let's deal with what we can do." I took a break to breathe "What about Robert?"

"He claimed to be our enemy, so I recommend heavily sedate him, so that he won't be on the battlefield."

"We did that with Matthew once and it didn't work out." Sophie commented.

"Then I don't know." He said sighing "Figure it out yourselves; I've already prepared the battle strategy, I don't want to think any further."

"Thank you, Snake." I said sincerely "I know this must be hard on you…"

"I don't want a heart to heart talk either."

"Ok then…" I stared at my watch; it had just passed twenty minutes. "What time is the battle?"

"Five o clock." Sophie declared.

"Great, you prepare everything while I take care of some personal issues."

"That's nice." Sophie replied annoyed "Go away and take a breathe while we prepare the battle."

"This is the only day I can claim my father's will."

Everyone remained silent. Sophie frowned and she seemed to be embarrassed, but she was still a bit angry at my for my decision about Matthew, I could tell.

"His will said and I quote: 'my most precious item can only be claimed by my daughter Maquiel Rachel Gilbert on August 23rd 2014, not a day before, not a day after, otherwise as my final request is that the item gets burnt.'" When I finished the quote I had a several pair of eyes around me "Yes, I've got my own father issues too, but not that anyone cares, because the only pain everyone care is Matthew's." My eyes headed towards Sophie "You've got no idea how much you hurt Melanie, you are a terrible mother; that baby doesn't deserve you."

I walked out of the room and walked forward. My heart beat fast as I walked away. I knew I was too hard on Sophie, but I just exploded! After everything her children got through she still had doubts, she wasn't able to recognize her own mistakes, yet I felt kind of bad, because I saw how much suffering I inflicted on her; I was positive that nobody has ever been so mean to her. I sighed. I knew I owed her an apology; after all I lost the grip of it. I sighed once again as I headed to the bank.


	28. The fear factor

_**A/N: **__We're about to end the volume and the most intense battle package scenes are coming down! There will be multiple POV'S and the chapters may be the longest I've ever wrote, like this one!. I thought of a few music themes you may like to listen while reading, the idea is that you change of song as we change of POV, but feel to free to do as you like, you may listen to 1, all or none, it's up to you. Anyway, the order would be:_

_-Echoes by Klaxons._

_-Salamander by Ellegarden._

_-Unbreakable by Fireflight._

_-Numb by Linkin Park._

_-To the End by My Chemical Romance._

_-Animals by Nickleback._

_Those are the songs I used to inspire myself while writing most of the battle sequences :). And not that I'm quite a Kingdom Hearts fan, but simple and clean describes pretty well Maquiel's feeling and evolution through this volume, so I put a fragment of it below, and I heard it while writing some of Maquiel's fight. That's it for now, there's nothing else to say but enjoy and review =D!_

_

* * *

_

**The fear factor**

_Hold me,  
whatever lies beyond this morning  
is a little later on,  
regardless of warnings,  
the future doesn't scare me at all,  
nothing's like before._

_Simple and clean, Utada Hikaru_

_

* * *

_

"Thanks for waiting." The man said as he handed me an envelope and a box. "This is you inheritance."

"It's more than what I expected." I said smiling "I thought he would leave just a note. In by the way thanks, I'll be going."

I took the envelope and the box under my right arm and I started walking away from the bank. As I was walking outside I saw someone I thought I recognized passing by.

"Hey!" the guy said smiling "But if it isn't Maquiel!"

"Isaac!" I replied amazed.

I walked towards him; what a coincidence. While walking towards him I couldn't avoid comparing him to Matthew once again. He was really alike, but no completely. He was blond, no freckles, and his face was a bit fatter than Matthew's. He also was also shorter than him. It was just on the details, but I could tell some differences.

"What a coincidence." Isaac commented "I thought I'd never see you again."

"Yeah, I thought that too."

"How is he?" he asked "Your boyfriend."

"Oh, he is great." I said smiling "We were on the wrong track, but we worked things out."

"Good for you." He said with a faint smile and downwards gaze "What were you doing here?"

"Collecting a package stored for me." I replied "Look, I have to go now. It's been… a great coincidence."

"Take care." He said while walking away "August 23rd is a day to fear."

I turned aside as he was walking away and I stepped towards him as my eyebrows started going down.

"You know something, don't you?" I asked as he kept walking away.

"I can't do much." He said to me as he finally stopped "If I could I would have stopped this since the very beginning."

"You are not only a random guy from the street." I said as he turned back to meet my eyes "You are actually involved."

His eyes seemed embarrassed, and his lips fell showing some kind of grief he held. I stared at him, trying to analyze him as Matthew would do, yet I wasn't as quick and I couldn't make a whole profile about him, I just could see that he was kind of hurt.

"When the times come…" he said "Rebel."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"There is not much time." He said as he grabbed his left elbow "I know you have trust issues, but… you can't allow the smash x evolution!"

My eyes opened wide as he made that statement, and then as he finished talking I would swear that a crack opened around his left elbow and was expanding around his body.

"Hey!" I yelled as I ran towards him "Are you ok?"

"Open the box! Read the letter later and…!" at this point his whole body was full of cracks "Let him fight him."

My eyes opened even wider and so did my mouth as Isaac literally broke into million little pieces. Those pieces disappeared on air just as they shattered and nobody, but I seemed to notice, which mean I was the only one who could see him.

I was shaking; it was quite a supernatural episode that I was not used to, even after everything I was through I never saw something like this coming. Who was he? Was he a ghost or something? But I wasn't able to see them as Melanie and Sophie, so he must have been something else, but what? I rushed to open the box and there I found a beam sword with to inscriptions around it. The first was around the hilt and it said "Gilbert", while the other was under it and it said "Vode". I didn't know what it meant, but I didn't think farther about it, if my dad left me a beam sword and he was mentioned on Vincent's journal that have meant.

"You always knew it…" I whispered out loud.

A stream of rage fell under my spine towards my whole body as I grabbed the beam sword tight. This entire time, everything went according some kind of plot, there was a layer beneath the whole fight against Wolf and Pit, there was something above, and it could or not involve Palutena and Tabuu, but I knew that we were being used. Was that what Isaac meant? We had to rebel against that?

I watched my clock and I decided that it was about time to get going there, we arranged to meet an hour before the battle so that we could prepare ourselves.

* * *

The park itself was a good battlefield because of the space we had there. There were always few chances that we fought on a small field, after all the enemy uses as much space as we do in order to fight, so they might want as well to use a big space. I was happy that Pit isolated this very place, the last thing I wanted to see were more people getting hurt because of what we were doing.

"Are you nervous Matt?" Melanie asked me.

"How many times must I say the same thing? It's Matthew; dad didn't give me that name so it could be shorten."

"I'd like you to call me Mel at times." She complained as she turned aside "Maquiel does. You should stop calling everyone by there complete names, you should use some nicknames at times, its warmer.

"So am I supposed to call Robert 'Robbie' or Maquiel 'Mackie'?"

"It's a start."

I sighed. Melanie was kind of mad at me; probably because she noticed I wasn't the same. It was hard for me to notice that she wasn't a kid anymore. She wasn't afraid, she didn't look for someone to protect her, and she was strong enough to show her emotions without being torn apart as she used to do. She was mad at me because she felt that I wasn't the same person any longer, and she was right, I was a different man, but I believed that over this entire time I grew up.

"_You did._" Mario replied on my mind "_But you can't expect that they will fully trust you again, especially when it's about Wolf._"

"I know, I know." I replied on my head "To be honest, I'm not even sure if I truly trust in myself either."

"_You know what you got to do…_" he stopped and he seemed to sigh "_It isn't easy for me either; I'd rather fight any other opponent."_

"And yet you want to get over with it."

"_It's a feeling cocktail._" We both laughed a bit "_I know how much you care about him, and I know you wouldn't have done what you did if I woke up back there…_"

"Past is past." I commented as I grabbed Vatra "We can only look forward."

"_That sword is a remainder of that._" Mario commented "_It's funny that over all this time, it seems that this item holds a part of you, for some reason, no matter what happened, you always end up using it once again._"

I smiled; I really believed that this sword held a bit of my soul on it, something Maquiel and Melanie held on for so long until they got me back. I also thought that if it wasn't for this beam sword I wouldn't be here, that I would have succumbed long ago.

"I'll end this." I said out loud "Like I should have done it four years ago."

Melanie didn't reply, she merely gave me a sad look before she walked towards her positions. The teams were positioned as a triangle that covered two miles, we weren't so far, but we weren't so near either. Each one was pointing in the direction the leaders would appear. I gulped as I imagined the moment of Wolf's arrival and I held Vatra tighter. I knew what I was going to do, and Wolf knew it was the only way too.

Someone put a pair of hands on my eyes and I smiled.

"That's quite childish Mackie."

She got her hands off me and she turned me around. She was astonished by the way I called her, but at the same time there was happiness, like if she was waiting for being called like that for a long time. She hugged me as she seemed puzzled. It wasn't easy for her to trust me again, especially after being four years with Wolf, and we've been only a couple of days together.

"Can I call you Matt then?" she asked as her hands played around my chest.

I sighed.

"Sure." I replied "Hey… I…"

"I understand." She said as she embraced me tightly "Let's not talk about it."

I turned around and then while staring at her I realized that she had a beam sword attached to her waist.

"Where did you get that?"

"Apparently my father also did know about the smashers." Her answer left me astonished "I'm pretty sure mine's and yours have met before. The name of this sword is Vode."

"Funny."

"Why?"

"'Vode' means water in Croatian. Is it just a coincidence that I named my sword 'Vatra', which means fire, and your means water?"

"It's quite a coincidence." She replied "I wonder why he named it like that, it's not like I have water powers."

We remained in silence for quite some minutes, mostly playing around, moving in the same pace as we remained hugged. I hopped that we had more time together, but there was no time. Things were about to start and we knew our time together was to be hold again.

She was the one who broke the hug and walked towards her position, but not without looking at me first with a sorrow gaze. I felt bad for her, but I would show her I was worth trusting again. I sighed as I felt the change on the air pressure. Whenever the pale blue sky changed into a dark blue tone it meant that something would go terribly wrong, but I wasn't going too late anymore, I would do this in time and I'll end it.

They started arriving. The first one to make his appearance was Wolf. An airwing flew above the dark sky and he jumped off it, landing in front of me. Our eyes met; his only eye seemed to be full of sorrow and rage. Everyone, including me, put themselves on a guarding stance as we waited for the others to appear.

Pit was the second to appear; he showed himself up out of nowhere, his wings were open and feathers were flying around the air, something like teleportation, and he was in front of Maquiel.

Ike was the last to show up, but it wasn't too late either, only seconds after Pit. He also came from the sky, like if he gave a giant jump from wherever he was and he landed on the ground with grace in front of Melanie.

"So you were prepared this time." Pit commented "You're finally thinking Maquiel."

Maquiel didn't reply, she merely gave him an annoyed look. We waited for them to do something and for the rest of the smashers to show up. It wasn't like them to show up all alone. Wolf made a quick step and he was just next to me, with his hand across my chest. Maquiel noticed and she turned around terrified.

"Shall we take this elsewhere?" he asked "Any place where she is not around."

I gulped as I released Vatra. The steam of light came out as Wolf jumped backwards before it could hit him. My eyes showed determined and still as he gave me the same look back. I headed Vatra towards him as the blade ignited on fire.

"This is going to be a sad day." Wolf mumbled as two new airwings appeared on the air "Fox! Falco! It's time to destroy Pit and Ike!"

"Night stalkers!"

"Warriors of sunset!"

The place was quickly covered by a huge amount of smashers. Every single smasher was here now, with exception of those who died before this match. The troupes were behind each leader, and all of them had a great number of smashers, I couldn't count them all before Wolf grabbed my waist from behind.

"Now Fox! Do it!"

It took only some seconds before I was transported into a place like the subspace. The sky above us was dark black and it seemed like electric waves surrounded it as we stepped on the purple and blue waves of the floor. It was kind of nostalgic; this was the place where we first met. I never actually thought about Gabriel's ability, he was able to send us here, even thought the subspace was destroyed, a world he created, how? It didn't matter back there; Wolf had planned it out so that he could be alone with me, avoiding everyone to interfere.

"I don't want to fight you." Wolf said "You know what Pit is plotting, what is going to happen to Maquiel, so why? Why do you expose?"

"Because I have to." I replied "Over these years I understood why you protected me so badly, why you always sought for me, and I always felt protected… I may have ended your angst, but not mine!"

My answer made his only eye to open wide as he remained still. He had no intentions to hurt me, if he could work out this with words he would do it, if not he would take me by force, just as Maquiel did… it was funny; everyone tried to get me, to have me, and nobody cared how I felt. Nobody at all, but Mario…

"Nobody cared about my feelings, about my pain." I said as my eyes burnt on rage and sadness "You only wanted me to exist, Maquiel only wanted me to be next to her… Mario is the only one who actually thought about me!"

His eye was now showing fierce fury as his hands formed fist and his snout seemed in an anger I've never seen.

"We'll take Palutena down together! And Tabuu! All I want to do is to live and easy going life! Once we end this I have no intentions of being a hero, every person is capable to defend themselves…"

A tear fell on my face as I smiled.

"I learnt that after dad died… it was hard, it shattered me, something died on me… and when we met, when I learnt the truth, I felt like that thing was revived, but I also stopped moving forward!"

I had to take a breathe and make my mind to keep talking. Mario encouraged me; we both knew we weren't going to work things out by talking, and that's why saying it was so hard.

"You are the closet thing to a father I have… You are my father! But… when Maquiel got into my soul I realized that I want to be here… I don't want to hide on your shadow anymore, I want to live, and if I can, I would like to fight against Palutena alongside you, but not like before."

There was a brief silence, before Wolf replied. He seemed like he was getting it together again; he closed his eye and then he opened it, now more relaxed as he stared at me.

"On your guard Matthew." He said as he pointed his claws against me "Show me that you can kill Palutena and Tabuu. Kill me first."

I stored Vatra around my trousers and then I shape shifted into Mario. It had been such a long time since I took that form that I wasn't sure if I was going to do good as always, but there was no time to wonder. I raised my fist and I prepared to hit as Wolf to slash with his claw. His hand stopped my fist and I jumped backward as the fight started.

* * *

"Damn it!" I yelled as I stared to small subspace created above us. I knew that right there laid Matthew and Wolf fighting. "What did…?"

I had no time to end the phrase; I had to dodge the first strike. I flipped backwards, but a blade's edge rubbed my elbow and made a small cut. Ike was heading against me; I jumped backwards and before I started shape shifting Pit covered me and his halberd clashed with Ike's ragnell and the clash created some waves.

I was about to speak, but hell was unleashed among us. By the time I shape shifted several battles had already began. Link and Marth were fighting; I saw Gabriel heading towards Bowser as Falco headed towards Lucario, whose path towards Mewtwo was interrupted by Ash' Pokemons. Melanie gave the first strike against Sheik who was trying to brawl against Kirby. There were many other battles raging on, but I would lose track of time counting them all, so I tried to focus on an enemy I should take down, yet nobody came to fight me, and everyone seemed to be already fighting. There were around 34 warriors around, maybe less, but the truth was that every smasher was in a blood fest, but me.

I decided to go against Gabriel; maybe if I defeated him, the subspace above us would disappear. I got near them and I was about to land my first strike against Bowser with a mighty fist, when someone grabbed my wrist.

"Robert?"

I tried to break free, but I couldn't, which was weird as I was physically stronger than him, but then I noticed that both his hand and eyes burnt in blue aura.

"What the hell?" I yelled as I felt that he was reaching for my soul.

He made me shape shift back to my human self and in a one single movement he separated Samus' body from mine. She was thrust backwards as I was left all alone.

I was scared, but Robert released my hand as his hands and eyes came back to their natural state, and as he knelt before me.

"What did I do?" he asked confused "Why can't…?"

My eyes searched quickly for Lucario, who despite of being fighting Falco, headed a hand towards Robert and caused him pain as he was covered in blue aura. Robert yelled in pain, as his whole body was covered in Lucario's aura.

"ROBERT!" I shouted.

But he wasn't listening anymore; he shape shifted into Yoshi, but there was something weird on it. Yoshi grew quite fast three pair of wings in his backs, his eyes were completely blue, his hands were like Lucario's, and through the neck down grew Lucario's fur.

I didn't understand what was going on, but I was surely scared as hell. I tried to run towards Lucario and hit him to break his control over Robert, but I was stopped by Yoshi's mighty stomp; he jumped and he stomped in my back making me pound on the ground. I saw how Samus ran into my aid, but Yoshi fired a blue fire ball against her and she was sent backwards.

"Samus!" I yelled.

Then I heard how bullets were coming down. I couldn't see if they were actually hitting the smashers, all I could tell was that Snake's plan was about to start.

I turned aside and I hit Yoshi's belly in order to send him backwards. I stood up as my breathing became rather fast and Yoshi flew around me on the air. I gave a quick glimpse on Lucario.

"What have you done to him?" I asked with rage.

"_Did you think Yoshi could stop our blood bond?_" I didn't actually expect a reply as he was still fighting Falco, but he kept sending his thoughts towards me "_He was trapped between my bond with Robert and the result is what you are seeing._"

I closed my fist with rage and I tried to go against him, but yet again Robert stopped me. Robert had the upper hand as Samus was no longer on my body; she struggled to get back next to me, but the battle was so intense that she couldn't find a simple way to cross through the fire, water, wind and rambling damage that the battle caused. She tried to force her way through battle, but it would take time to get back next to me, so I had to survive on my human shape as Pit trained me to. I noticed that Robert wasn't going all out against me, probably because Lucario was acting under Pit's command… then I understood that this entire fighting, the fact that he removed Samus of my body was so that he could put Palutena under my veins. I face punched Yoshi, but he was barely affected despite the mighty strength of my hit and he covered me with one pair of wings, trapping me on them as his hands held me and he flew up high with the other four.

I had a quick glimpse of everyone, but soon I was removed from the battlefield.

* * *

"What the fuck is going on?"

Marth's blade came against me so fast that I had no time to wonder further. I rejected it with my own blade and the clash of swords made a noisy chirp that surrounded the whole space. I tried to look at Melanie's fight, but I had to response quickly against Marth's sword or I'd lose. It was hard, he was a bit faster than I and it reflected on my poor timing at blocking. There were several strikes I could barely block; straight lines from every direction trying to hit on my vital spots, like neck, head, chest, among others. I had no time to dodge, but only to block until I managed to raise my leg and kick him on the hips. He fell back and then I took the chance to strike back. The blade merely nicked his forehead, but I was happy that I took the first strike, it was a good sign. A blood steam came from his forehead, but it wasn't anything serious and he kept fighting like nothing ever happened. There was a lot of pressure, I could notice that he was better skilled than I when his blade broke through my block; our swords crashed and instead of falling back, he rose his hand and pointed the sword down making it split through my blade and he almost pierced my lung, I was fast enough to move, but it cut below armpit. It felt like the wound burnt, but I took the chance to grab Marth wrist, and then I stabbed him on the waist. I would have gone for the heart, but it was the only spot I could go for at that limited time I had. I was sure that it hurt him, but he took the hilt of my Master Sword and then he turned aside and thrust me out of his range. I was sent flying backwards, but I quickly drew my bow and an arrow and tried to pierce his head, yet he rolled to the right as he removed the blade from his waist. He held it on his left arm as he bled to dead.

"Come on." He said weakly as I prepared a bomb arrow "Show me what you got."

I shot the arrow, but he took a guard stance and he deflected it by striking it at the arrows steel point and it was sent upwards where it exploded. Then he came quickly as hell, leaving a blood trace behind him and he started brandishing both swords against me. I rolled in order to avoid the hits, but he managed to back stab me. Luckily it wasn't near of my spine, and it didn't touch any vital spot, yet I cough blood as the second sword came to make the final blow. In despair, I threw him a bomb on the face and the explosion sent us both backwards. He took the brunt of it, but the flames and waves also took their effect on me, not to mention the blade still lay on my back. I coughed even more blood and I fell uncounscious.

* * *

"LINK!"

I didn't know what to do first; some smashers already went into the building to take Snake down, Robert had this strange transformation and took Maquiel away, I was fighting Sheik and Link lay there bleeding to dead. I also had to restore my position and fight Ike, so that mom could point shoot him.

"Troubles on your party?"

I stared at Sheik with hatred as I sent a Din's fire against him, but he dodged it with no trouble. He wasn't really fighting me, he was just standing near by me, and I didn't know what he plotted, but I knew it couldn't be good if he was on Pit's side. I tried to think fast, but it was too much to process. Gabriel passed next to me; he was sent flying next to me. He stopped his falling with the rod, and he seemed ok, yet he was fighting Dry Bowser by now and he seemed to be having some difficulties. I was about to talk when I noticed Lucario and Falco came by. In a matter of seconds I was in the center of a fighting circle surrounded by Sheik, Lucario, Falco, Gabriel, and Bowser. I had too many questions in mind, but instead of asking I decided to attack; I attacked Lucario. He didn't see me coming after him, I grabbed his neck and I punched his face several times.

"What did you do to Robert?"

He didn't seem to care that much for my hits, he was tranquil and he even replied to me.

"_He and Yoshi are now a part of me. They smash x evolved into me._"

"Cut it off!"

I held Din's fire on my hand and I was about to make it explode in his head, but Sheik grabbed my wrist and he pound me on the ground next to Lucario.

"You should understand that we are not the enemy." He said "Stop fighting us and help us destroying the others."

"You don't understand!" I said as I kicked his hips, forcing him to release my wrist "You are not our allies! None of them are either!"

The truth was that we were pretty much alone; this entire fight was a free for all, in which four parties fought each other trying to survive. It was a blood fest.

I stood up quickly and I tried to think of a way out of all this. I ran towards Link; if I could release Navi then I might save him. I was terrified when I saw that Sonic walked past him. For an instance I thought he was about to kill him, but he just gave him a sad gaze as he walked away.

"Hey!" I said as I reached Link body.

Sonic looked back at me, but his eyes were ice cold. I didn't know if I had to fight him or not, but my hands held tight on Link's body as I tried to think on the right question.

"Whose side are you on?"

"Does that matter?" he asked "Look around, nobody cares."

"Why didn't you kill Link? Aren't we your enemies?"

"You've done nothing to me. I only go after does that have."

Then I understood who he was going towards. I just prayed he didn't know where he was. I quickly release Navi who lay on Link's bottle hid on his pocket, and I stood up in a fighting stance against Sonic. I wouldn't let him hurt Salaric or my mother.

"I won't lose time with you."

He left faster than I could follow, and I was forced to let him go as I had to protect Link's body. King Dedede was about to smash his head with his hammer, but I used Naryuu's love and rejected it as he fell back a little bit.

"Where are the traitors?" he asked.

Then suddenly I was covered by many smashers; Diddy and Donkey Kong, Toon Link, R.O.B, Mr. Game and Watch, Jiglypuff, Ness, among many others that escaped from my field of sight. I couldn't tell whose side where they all belong, but I could tell that I was in middle of the cross fire.

* * *

"Any chance yet?" I asked.

"Things are getting crazy." Sophie replied "Snake already started the snipping, but I had no chance to point shoot the leaders."

I was already on Meta Knight's shape; it was safer this way. We were merely waiting for something to happen, but the events were actually moving too fast so that we could act. It was awful to wait when you see how the battlefield was filled with blood, specially for Sophie who couldn't see how Matthew was doing or seeing how Melanie struggled for her life.

"Any ideas of what happened to Robert?" I asked.

"I could feel it." She replied "It was smash x evolution."

"Do you know what that is?"

"Aside from the name I don't know much. I just knew that Robert had the same change Matthew had four years ago. That's what I could feel, but…"

"But?"

"It was weird because Robert's soul is attached in middle of two souls, Yoshi's and Lucario's, and it's like his mind is wrapped in middle of a dispute of those two."

"Who is winning?"

"Lucario. He and Robert have a blood attachment so it's easier for him to control Robert's body, but it seems that in order to fully control his body he can't move on his own body anymore, right now he is beside Pit who is protecting him as well as fighting Ike."

Things were starting to get weirder and weirder, not to mention bloody and fiercer.

"When there's a chance I'll kill Lucario. That will set Robert free."

I hopped. I had a mixture of feelings; on one side I was happy that I was away from that blood fest, but on the other side I felt like I was just escaping from it. We could just wait. Then we heard an explosion.

"Snake jumped off the building!" Sophie announced.

"_Someone's coming!" _Meta Knight yelled in my head "_Protect Sophie!_"

I stood guard in front of Sophie, who was looking attentively to the whole events through the rifle's eye, waiting for her chance. I heard footsteps and I brandished my sword as I waited for my opponent, kind of nervous. It would be my first full fledge fight ever as a shape shifter. I doubt about my chances, but I was calm as I knew both Meta Knight and I were ready to die for Sophie's sake.

"_Take it easy._" He said "_Whoever it is, we won't let it touch her._"

But the shape that opened the door to the building roof made me open my eyes wide.

"You weren't expecting me, were you Salaric?"

Even Sophie turned aside when she heard his voice. We both stared at Sonic with both fear and shock.

"I see you got me replaced." He said smiling "I'm glad you didn't think on getting me back or some shit like that."

He came directly towards me way too fast. I was able to block his fist with my sword and then I counter attacked, yet he jumped backwards. I rushed towards him and I stroke, but he was obviously too fast for my sword to catch and he ran to my back and hit me there. I pounded against a wall as Sophie drew a hand gun and shoot against Sonic, but as expected none of the bullets hit him and the one that could was stopped by Sonic's hand. He grabbed it with his fingers before it reached his head and he threw it away. Sophie had to reload and before Sonic could think of hurting her I rushed towards him and I tried to back stab him, but he hit my face and then he made a quick flip so that his legs could send me above. Then he jumped, he reached a higher high than I, and he kicked me to pound me on the buildings floor. I opened my wings in order to make an air recover and then I slashed his arm. The cut was effective and I it got through the skin, making a stream of blood flow.

"_We have the upper hand on the sky, so stay out of the ground or he'll kill us for good."_

Meta Knight was right; I tried to stay out of the ground as much as I could so that I could keep the upper hand. Sonic reached the floor and he looked at me angered as I flew around the building, waiting for the best chance to attack him.

"_Imbecile! If you wait too much he is going to hurt Sophie!_"

I didn't wait any longer. I flew down at high speed and I was able to land a hit from Galaxia on his left leg, but it wasn't that much of a critical hit as I expected it to be, in fact he recovered pretty quickly and then he kicked me with his right left, then he grabbed my wrist and he pounded me on the floor to start hitting me continuously. He had to fall back when he heard Sophie's bullet coming out of the cannon; he was faster than those bullets, but he had at least to spend a split second to recover his posture, so I took the chance to quickly stand up and rush against him to slash. He stopped my blade barehanded and I was left astonished.

"Did you think this blade was enough to beat me up?"

He didn't attack; instead he took my body and he jumped off the building.

"Salaric!" Sophie yelled.

I realized that she didn't shot as she was afraid to hit me instead, after all Sonic could use me as meat shield. I was partially happy that he jumped off the building, because Sophie was safer, but at the same time I had no aid if we didn't enter on the park. Sonic used me as an air bag and I pounded on the ground as kept hitting me, but in middle of the growing pain through my whole body I found the strength to make a single slash that cut through Sonic's middle waist and then I punched him on the face as I tried to stab him on the chest. He held my wrist as his eyes became fierce and angry.

"I'm not getting stab on the same spot twice."

He thrust me backwards and then he started glowing slightly, as the wound started closing. He was about to use his final smash.

"_You have to unleash our final smash!_"

But how? I wasn't like Maquiel or Matthew who could unleash it any time they wanted, the only time I did it I was unconscious and Sonic took care of that, using my soul power.

"_I heard Pit. He said that one acquires the __final smash through the understanding or resolution of some inner conflict experienced. So if there's a great time for an epiphany it would be now._"

But how could I do that? I had no previous memories of my life before Sonic took over my body. The thing was that I was losing time track as Sonic's body became completely golden; he was already on his final smash.

"_SHIT! Hurry up, Salaric!_"

I could barely react when I felt the blood coming out of my face. The mask was completely broken and below my eyes I saw a stream of blood flying away from my body. I tried to counter attack, but with one hand swim Sonic broke Galaxia on two equal pieces.

"Bastard." He said annoyed "You don't remember your sins and Meta Knight didn't have the balls to tell you."

"_Don't listen!_" Meta Knight yelled on my mind as I was falling to the ground "_Don't fall now! Get up!_"

"Too slow, even while falling."

I received a second hit on the back and a second blood steam flew away as I pounded on the ground. My right hand held Galaxia's remain tightly as I tried to focus on Sophie, on how much I loved her and how I wanted to overcome the fear for the fight… but it wasn't enough, it didn't matter how much I focused those beloved memories on my heart or how much I tried to overcome fear; I could, but there was something else in the way. Something buried on the depths of my soul. Guilt.

"What have I done?" I asked out loud.

"I pity you." Sonic said as he grabbed my head and stood me up. We were staring at each other, but my sight was very blurry, I could barely see him right "I pity you so much that I won't force those memories back."

"_Salaric react! He is going to kill you! SALARIC!_"

I could feel a burning feeling inside me, but those were not mine, those were Meta Knights. When he said he loved Sophie I never imagined it could be this way; she was the light of the dark side of him. I smiled, because for me it was exactly the same way, and yet his feelings seemed to be stronger, he wasn't as broken as me.

I tried to slash one more the time the broken blade against Sonic, and despite it didn't hurt him at all, it at least broke me free of his hands.

I was still bleeding, I was very weak, I seemed useless, but I would try… for Sophie and for Meta Knight… he deserved her more than I did, I acknowledged that, his love was meant to never be as he wasn't human, but he felt like one. I stood the broken Galaxia up with trembling hands, but with a strong resolve. Sonic looked at me as I was making fun of me, and I didn't even saw when he sent me flying backwards, but I opened the bat wings wide as I was thrust backwards and my eyes burnt on resolve as I flew right back to him. It was time to…

_Fuuuuuuuuu!_

I heard a noise on my head and suddenly everything became white. I could see next to me a man, very like me, but with longer hair and malicious look on his face.

"What are you doing?" a kid voice asked.

"I'm preparing myself to be Tabuu's vessel."

The scene stopped being white and I started remembering… little by little… the machinery on the room, the kid that looked just like Matthew, but with ice cold blue eyes, the cocky scientist on the room, me… The blue walls, the wooden table with the labs notes, the screen monitoring the smashers activities…

"Tabuu and Palutena are important figures, their deities and our most profit creation. I'm glad you got rid of Vincent."

"I never failed in any of your assignments." Lex replied as he seemed in a hurry to leave "Has Richard been useful to you?"

"Indeed. I used his and Vincent's DNA in order to create Palutena, now I just have to use our DNA in order to create Tabuu."

The kid face seemed reluctant. He didn't want to be part of it, and…

PUM!

"_SALARIC, FIGHT BACK, DAMN IT!_"

Meta Knight's voice brought me back to the actual world where I was lying on the ground bleeding to dead as Sonic stared at me with angry eyes. Was he going to finish me off?

Then I heard a bullet coming down. It was too fast and unexpected for Sonic to dodge and it hit his shoulder. I noticed that he wasn't golden any more.

Sophie had just given me a chance to stand up and fight. I had to do it… for her, no matter what my past was like. But as soon as I stood up I felt on my knee and Sonic kicked my face yet again. I tried, I tried, but the aura for the final smash wasn't coming along and just when I thought I was done for it, Kirby came by with the dragoon and clashed against Sonic. He stood next to me as he released a heart container on my body.

"I thought you would develop the final smash by this far."

I felt embarrassed; I was still weak and helpless, not to mention that my recent memory could only increase the guilt in my chest… I gave the order to kill Vincent… the thought of how I tore up Sophie's family just made me sick.

"He is for you to take care of Salaric." Kirby said "I can't stay here, not as long as Pit is there…"

"But weren't you in Pit's side?"

Kirby noticed that he said too much and he just ran away by killing the dragoon and returning to the battlefield, was he betraying Pit?

"Everything is betrayal and more betrayal." I whispered as I took my now fixed Galaxia and stepped forward "What is beyond this entire lie?"

I stood up and I noticed how Sonic came walking towards me, now weakened by the clash against the dragoon and bothered by my presence. I was too confused… I wasn't able to see things through.

"Sonic stop it!" I finally said "I'm not the same man I used to be!"

"While I used your body I could see those memories of you…" he said angered "You used us… you created our suffering, our living hell! I don't care if you can remember or not, the damage is already done!"

I sighed as the resolve came back to me… the woman at the roof of the building was waiting for me to get back there safe… I had to protect her, no matter how much guilt I had, and as long as I was around Sonic would be after me and there where no guarantees he wouldn't hurt her.

"I may have to pay for my acts…" I said as I felt a purple aura covering me "But that doesn't change the fact that there's something I have to protect now!"

"_Fear our power!_"

I rushed towards Sonic who also entered in his final smash once again; he was about to wrap us in his mighty power, but I stood still and I ensnared him with a flip of the cape. While having him beneath my cape I could feel how the whole energy from his final smash was hurting me, but I didn't flinch until I made the hit that broke through his smash.

I shape shifted back to my human self and I was left with no energy left as I fell on my knee. Sonic on the other hand was still capable to stand a fight, but he turned aside and he walked away.

"Why?" I asked puzzled "Why aren't you killing me?"

"I don't kill weaklings." He said as gave me an angry look "Get stronger so that I can kill you."

He left and I passed out.


	29. Smash X Revolution

_**A/N: **__One of the longest chapters on the series so far along with the fear factor, multiple POV's , but just shifting between Maquiel and Matthew, so we'll get many fighting sequences of those two and the plot will also develop to end this arc and enter in the last arc of the story. I really hope you enjoy it._

_

* * *

_

**Smash X Revolution**

"Where have you taken me?"

We were standing on a building roof. I got near of the edge and I noticed that a building next to this one was blown up and the park was just in front of us. I thought Robert would take me away from the fight. I turned aside and I watched how Robert seemed to start twisting himself; his whole body was struggling against an invisible force, his wings flapped, his eyes changed from blue to green and blue again… was he fighting against Lucario's mind control?

"Don't give in Robert!" I said as I got next to him "You are not such a whim to let him take control of you! Remember!"

Now I understood why he didn't take me far from the fight… there was a side of him that fought against Lucario's control. I was in a hard situation; ever since Robert came back to the party he closed completely up to us, there was something wrong, even with Yoshi's presence he claimed to be our enemy, but…

"Rebel!" I said, although not sure if it was the time Isaac thought of "Robert, I…"

I jumped backwards as his wings flapped more violent. His eyes were completely blue again and he seemed about to attack me. I drew Vode out and I unleashed the steam of light that took the shape of a blade. I brandished it against him, but he stopped it with his barehanded I and I jumped backwards again. I was very near the edge, so I had to start dodging to the right or the left, but not backwards. As the blade show itself ineffective I stored it in order to keep myself faster, so I kicked his legs and forced him to fly up high, which gave me enough time to cover more space around. When he flew back down I punched his face and then, in a quick move while he had to recover, I drew out again and stabbed him on the belly with Vode. The wound started closing around my blade with the aura power.

"Wake up Robert!" I yelled at him "You belong with us, you know it!"

I stepped backwards as I saw how he was struggling once again.

"You were always one of us, and you will always be." I looked at him with sadness as I knew there was no other way around it "So if you need me to clear you head, I will!"

I knew he was mighty powerful, I could tell by the steam of aura that healed his wound and that covered his both hands and eyes, but I was not scared, not anymore. Even if I had to fight on my human self I knew I could figure it out, or at least survive.

I swam the blade towards him and he flew high again, so I waited until he flew back to dodge a tackle and then, while spinning, I kicked his face. After I hit I started punching him several times; no hit seemed to really hurt him, his stamina and defense were too high, but I didn't give him any chance to react against me, my hits were too fast for him to response, but at the same time they weren't strong enough. I wished I had Samus with me back then.

I got distracted by that thought and his aura thrust me away. I almost fell on the edge of the building, but he didn't come after me. The whole aura burst in his body and he shape shifted back to his usual self. His eyes recovered their usual calypso tone leaving the dark blue behind. He knelt as he coughed blood.

"Robert!" I said as I ran towards him "Are you ok?"

"They did it…" he said as he grabbed my blouse "Maquiel! They did it!"

"They did what?"

I noticed that Robert face was broken and shedding tears; I understood what he meant, the thing that Robert never told us.

"I was happy… for the first time on my life and they took that from me." His hands reached my shoulders as his head embraced my chest, and he cried like a little boy "They killed them and they killed her too."

"Who've they killed?" I asked as I embraced Robert.

"My students… and my fiancée..."

His voice was completely torn apart when he told me that, and he cried even louder as he embraced me tightly. My eyes were full of hatred against Pit… he once said he needed to put Robert in motion…

"This entire time I thought it was Matthew… I decided that I would take Wolf in order to make a pay back and fill this emptiness… I don't know what to do; I don't know who I am or what I want. Tell me Maquiel! Who am I? What was the thing that fought you?"

I rubbed his back shocked… I never saw Robert so fragile, so vulnerable, he always stood up thousands of walls around his real self, and now they were all down, leaving an upset and confused child. I had also to process the fact that Robert was actually engaged. I knew he started a new life teaching Judo, but I never thought he could have fell for someone, it was just… so unlike him… yet I didn't doubt of it at all, I embraced him with pity; my arms were tight and stiff, but I tried to comfort him.

"You are Robert Wolf, a shape shifter who becomes Yoshi, and you are our comrade." I kept rubbing his back as I sighed "It doesn't matter what you did or will do, you can always count on us."

Robert seemed to start taking it easier and the crying stop, although the tears still came by, I could tell because I could feel when they fell on my blouse. Yoshi should be also talking to him in order to make him calm.

"I have to go." I said as I broke our hug "Stay here Robert."

I stood up and I saw a Robert I never saw before; a scared Robert. He was surely afraid that if he went back he would lose it again, and I couldn't blame him, after all I was also scared of that. I smiled at him.

"I'll avenge them all; I'll kill Pit on their name."

"I'm counting on you."

It was the first time I heard Robert say that, he was really, really broken. I sighed as I looked for the door that would lead me downstairs. I found it and I started going down, and while I did I found someone breathing fast sat on the stairs.

"Isaac!" I said shock.

"There's no time… I already interfered more than what I'm allowed."

"You… you set Robert free, didn't you?"

He nodded as he coughed. He looked awful, he was sweating, his face was red and he trembled too much.

"Don't lose time with me!" he commanded as he got up "You get there and kick Pit's ass!"

I nodded and then I kept my way downstairs. I was almost sure that he would break into pieces like he did outside of the bank.

I was thankful to him, for some reason I did not yet understand he was helping me… whenever I could I would return him the favor.

* * *

I was getting tired. I could read his movements, but I couldn't react fast enough to dodge every single hit. My left eye's sight was a bit blurry and I couldn't tell where he was coming to attack.

I tried to go there and punch him, but he stopped my fist with an open hand and then I flipped to kick the hand as I released a fireball that was reflected towards me. I stepped backwards and I avoided the fire ball, but Wolf was at my back before I could tell and I was barely able to turn aside and grab his wrist, but he was faster and his left hand slashed with his mighty and sharp claws that cut through Mario's outfit. It wasn't mean to be lethal, he was just tiring me up, and he didn't seem to be affected at all. I wasn't sure what was the best thing to do next, final smash? Final form? Wherever I used I would only waist energy and I wasn't sure if I could end it, so I tried to stay on Wolf's same level, but it wasn't easy. Although my reflexes and reactions got sharper after four years with him, I wasn't at his level, I could barely stand a hand to hand combat with him on the same ground, I'd be force to move to the next level first.

There was no talking, I just could sense my own thoughts as I tried to look for a way out of this fighting, I had to come up with a way to beat him.

He started the attack again and I had to react fast. He slashed his claws against me several times and I tried to do my best with my timing to dodge them all, but at some points the claws just reached me in different spots; face, legs, hips, arms, etc… All those were superficial cuts, but they were starting to make my moves dull and stiff. I tried to counter attack and I luckily succeed on a hit. I face punched him and then I took my chance to make several punches on his waist, trying to make him lose some air and break through his defense, but it was thought, his defense was like iron. I filled my fist with a fireball and then I punched him with might on the lungs. It definitely hurt him, but it wasn't enough. He set his whole body on purple flames and then he rushed against me. He was behind me now and I burnt on the flames as he came back to start slashing again. I rolled to turn the flames out and then quickly kick his legs in order to make him fall, yet he jumped on perfect timing and he drew his blaster to start shooting at me. I used Mario's cape in order to reflect those blasts, but I couldn't deflect all of them. The one that hit me sent me backwards and Wolf almost had me on his mercy when his claws were about to pierce my ribs, but I managed to grab his wrist and as I yelled a war cry I got up in one jump and then I started spinning, holding Wolf's wrist with might and I let it go after ten spins, sending him upwards, and then I jumped in order to make an aerial smash. It would have been effective if it wasn't for Wolf's quick aerial recovery; when I was reaching altitude, he smashed back to the platform and I pounded on it. It hurt as hell, but I got up in no time as I decided that if I wanted a chance I had to take him by surprise, so while falling I released my final smash.

"ARRRRRGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" I yelled as the two serpents like fireballs flew their way towards Wolf.

Wolf not only turned on his reflector on, but he also used his telekinesis to deflect the fireballs, and so they went towards the space like roof beneath us, breaking through it to show, for a short instance the dark blue sky that lay outside.

* * *

I got off the building when I stared at the two serpents like fireballs coming out of the subspace.

"Matt…" I mumbled surprised.

I was pretty sure that the fighting got worse for him at every second, the fact that the fireballs broke through that subspace up there was only meaning he was wasting a lot of power already, so that would mean it was about to get ugly. I quickened my pace towards the park; as I passed by I saw many trophies around, some smashers still fighting, including Melanie who I noticed was really tired.

"Maquiel!" Samus yelled as she ran towards me.

But she was thrust backwards. Pit was in front of me, he got there in a quick step that escaped my sight.

I didn't give him a chance to speak before I punched his face, but he reacted just afterwards and he drew his halberd and attempted to pierce me. I jumped backwards a bit puzzled; did he want to fight me? Did he want to hurt me? I just knew that whatever thing he tried it was for Palutena's sake, so I should not take him lightly.

I knew that if Pit got serious I was done for, especially if I didn't have Samus to fight with. I got on my guard, as I heard a chopper on the sky. It was Snake's final smash.

He was shooting several ammo against every smasher he could. Then I remembered that I had to give Sophie a chance to point shoot Pit, so I stared at Pit who didn't seem concerned about Snake's final smash.

It was weird for him to just attack and not talk; usually it was the other way around, just talking and not even one single action. This time he went all out against me, like he did while we trained. He came against me with dangerous slashes from his halberd, but I just made little jumps to right, left or back on the right timing, just as I learnt when we trained, and then whenever there was a split chance opening… I hit his left wrist with my right leg and then with my left hand I grabbed his wrist, as my right hand punched his waist, and I headbutted his head. He stepped backwards as I came against him with a mighty punch raised, but he was fast enough to hit me on the back with his halberd hilt and then he kicked me on the hips. I was forced to step backwards and the second I used to catch my breathe was the same second he used to shoot more light arrows than I could ever see coming. I was covered by Melanie's Naryuu's love that acted as a shield, but it was broke in no time by the arrows and some of them hit me on the elbows. It hurt, but I was ok, I was concerned about Melanie who protected me and partially lost her guard, giving Sheik the chance to pound her on the ground. As I got distracted, Pit kicked my face and I fell on the ground, as his feet stomped on my waist. The stomp was so hard that it was almost impossible for me to react in time, but I grabbed his heel and I twisted it with might. Pit yelled out of the hell of a pain, but it didn't really stopped him from stomping on me once again, yet this time I saw it coming and I rolled as I got up and then I got ready to punch, but he drew his shield out and my punch only connected to it. I had to step backward, the hit had hurt my knuckles, almost breaking them, and Pit took my momentary weakness in order kick my hand, ensuring that the knuckles from my right hand, my primary weapons of use, would be certainly broken. I yelled of pain, but just as Pit I didn't let that stop me. I wasn't really used to fight with only one hand, much less if it was my left hand, but my right hand would still be able to reach for Vode and fight back, after all I could close a weak fist. I didn't draw it yet, but it wasn't necessary. Before I could realize I couldn't step backwards. I was trapped on a marked circle that Pit made on the ground, plowed with his own halberd. I also noticed that Melanie lay on Sheik mercy; she was forced to shape shift back to her human self and she was grabbed from the neck on Sheik's arm. I stared at some other of our party.

Snake was already ending his final smash and he noticed that Samus was surrounded by a lot of smashers. Link lay unconscious, just as Ash, whose fight with Mewtwo ended on a tie with both of them lay on the floor bleeding, and so where Lucas and Pikachu. Ike's, Wolf's and Pit's party kept fighting, but our party had already been wiped out and now it was the moment that Pit wanted to ensure his victory, the moment he would turn me into Palutena.

"We got enough foreplay." Pit commented "I must say that I taught you good, didn't I?"

"Cut the cocky attitude!" I said "Get me out of here."

"You don't understand it Maquiel." Pit replied "You won't be able to bear losing them, would you?"

"You wouldn't sacrifice them!"

"Minor loses to the greater good."

I gulped; he had got me unguarded.

* * *

The final smash didn't drain out all of my energy, but it surely took a good grasp of it. I was now all tired out, while Wolf called his own final smash. The modified Wolfen turned into a Land Master was already on the platform and I knew there was only one way to survive through it as I already used the final smash. I used the final form.

Flames covered my body turned the shape of Mario into the fire Mario. I had to remain on this form as long as I could so I would be able to land the final blow when Wolf's final smash ended.

The first strike was hard to block, but I managed to break through the first blast with a fire sword I created to break the blast in two. Then I changed of tactic and I created a flame wall in order to retain the blasts there in an easier way, but Wolf saw through that and he crossed the firewall with a barrel roll as he shot several blast towards me; I had to jump and make aerial dodges in order to avoid being hit, and I managed, yet it wasn't easy. He drove fast towards me in order to crash, but I jumped as high as I could and then I created a brand new fire sword in order to break through the hatch, but as soon as the fire made contact with the hatch a barrel roll was made and I was sent flying backwards as I tried to recover on mid air. As I recover I noticed that the Land Master was in front of me and blast was shot. It was a direct attack I could not stop. For an instance I thought that was all for it, but I managed to take just a bit of damage and not the brunt of the blast. I created a brand new fire wall and then I let myself fall to the platform where Wolf was waiting for me. The final smash time ended, but he wasn't as near and tired and weakened as me. I stood up trying to hide how exhausted I was.

Then I noticed that his whole body was ignited on purple flames and black aura… I knew what it meant.

"Fuck damn it." I said out loud.

Wolf's final form; the Wolfen blasters were now attached to his arms, and his whole body was covered by a high tech armor, which was actually the Wolfen's materials, connected to his body through Wolf's eye patch.

I stood myself in guard, but Wolf was way too fast and stronger than me. Before I could tell, the blaster from his right arm destroyed my fire sword in one single blast fired in high speed and in one step too fast for my eye to see, his left hand pierced below my heart. The blast came on the shape of a light beam sword that pierced on the same spot I pierced him four years ago. I coughed blood and my final form ended as I shape shifted back.

"The same spot." Wolf said "I'm sorry, but we both now it was the only way to end the fight."

When he removed the blast sword a steam of blood came from the spot pierced and I felt like I was about to die. Wolf knelt before me.

"It's time to come back Matthew, don't worry about the wound; I won't let it kill you."

No… it couldn't be the end, no! There were people waiting for me… this time I knew how Maquiel felt, this time she was there for me. There had to be a way.

"_Smash X Evolution._"

Mario's word echoed on my head and I knew it was the only way in, but at the same time I was afraid that the change would only turn me on that being alike Wolf that almost got everybody killed four years ago.

"_No, it's not like that._" His thoughts came fast, so that we could make it in time "_Final smash is acknowledged! Final Form is submission! And Smash X Evolution is…_"

"Force it out…"

Just as I mumbled that Wolf was forced to step backwards as my body ignited. My whole body was now covered by flames that I could barely control. The wound closed so fast that I didn't even realize how much blood was lost. The flames came as if they were in a rampage, burning my whole outfit and it started to burn my skin as well.

"_You got to control it!_" Mario voice said "_You are being incinerated by my power! Take a grip of it!_"

I couldn't, but I had an idea. I directed the flames towards Vatra and when I released the beam sword, the light edge became completely red and it burst on hell flames that covered most of the subspace.

Wolf was shocked by the wave of power I was holding in the sword, and so was I, I thought the blade wouldn't take it, but… suddenly things started to change.

The flame became steady and the covered my body, but they didn't harm me. I also noted that there was a change on me. I was wearing Mario's outfit on my human form; my hands were covered on white gloves, a red hat lay on my head, I had the same trousers, shirts and suspenders. The blade also changed its shape. Now the hilt became a trigger and the beam light became a steel like blade, a bit wide, with something that seemed like a crack in middle on it, but there flames burst. It was some kind of gunblade.

Wolf stared at me astonished as I pointed the gunblade at him.

"Let's end this." I said "One strike."

"Smash X Evolution, huh?" he said as he raised the blast blade "Just one question."

"Go ahead."

"Is it that bad? Being with me?"

"No, not all." I said with a sad smile "It was great, it's just… that I need to be here."

"Thanks…" he said "Let's go."

We were on the same speed now, and we both managed to slash each other I could tell. When my blade made contact with his skin I pulled the trigger and when his made contact with mine, he released the blast. A wave of fire and white blast covered our sight.

* * *

Just when I thought it was over I could see that in the sky the subspace was destroyed. A white blast like a giant Zero laser and a cloud of fire covered the whole space.

I was too worried about Matthew, I didn't know how the fight ended, but I could tell that he was waiting for me… then it couldn't be that he was about to meet me as Palutena... I had to see him as myself.

The circle started glowing brightly as Pit started to get excited.

"Oh god…" he said "the time has come."

I got angry. I was at his back and he raised his arms so excited, thinking that he finally succeeded… and he was about to.

¡Zum!

For an instance I wasn't sure of what I heard, but I then noticed that Kirby's dragoon clashed against Sheik. I turned aside and I noticed how he offered Melanie a ride.

"Let's get out of here."

Melanie didn't reply, because someone was about to attack them. It was Lucario.

Kirby drew his blade fast and he cut through Lucario's skin and he stepped backwards as he sent an aura ball towards him, but he took Melanie by one hand and dodged it. Pit was furious.

"Kirby!" he yelled "What the hell are you doing?"

"Your plot means squab to me." Kirby replied "The only thing I care about is this woman."

Melanie was about to talk, but then I noticed that a blade was about to cut her in two equal pieces.

"MELANIE!" I yelled "Watch your back."

Blood flew around us, but not from Melanie. Kirby thrust her away, but Marth's sword came down from Kirby's face to the rest of his whole round body. I stared at it shocked. A tear came by my eye; I never expected that Kirby could protect Melanie at the cost of his own safety. He wasn't dead yet, but the wound was severe, yet he stood up, staring at Ike with rage. Melanie was about to aid him, but Kirby thrust Ike backwards before she could act and he stabbed him on the lung. Marth's life would not hold any longer, but it held long enough to stab Kirby on his forehead.

My hands covered my mouth; I couldn't believe what I was watching. Melanie was filled with rage and she didn't hold she used her final smash and she gave a war cry while unleashing the light arrow against Marth. She ended his agony; he was turned into a trophy with grey base as he was sent flying away backwards. Kirby fell next to her as Melanie shape shifted back to her human self, shedding tears and sobbing, just about to start crying.

"Kirby!" she said shocked "Why?"

"Your father's feeling…" Kirby said weakly "Your father loves for Matthew lies in Wolf and your father's love for you… always lay on me."

Melanie hugged Kirby as she took her next to Link.

"Lex didn't just created Wolf… he created me, he put your father's love for you on me… now I'm…"

"Don't talk as you are going to die! I'm going to fix you!" she said as she looked for Navi, but the fairy was still healing Link "Damn it! Hurry up!" she said crying out loud "Heart container! Anything! HELP!"

She was entering in a nerve collapse as she saw that everybody was still fighting; Ike's and Wolf's party kept their struggle as Pit's party had us surrounded. Melanie started crying.

"No, you can't die!" Melanie said as the tears fell on Kirby "Kirby, I…!"

"I'm happy…" Kirby said as his body started igniting, he was about to die the same way Roy did so long ago "In the end… you cared about me."

The ignition was slow, and Kirby raised his small hand to touch Melanie's face.

"I never understood it… the heart… and now I think I can see it… may I lay on you heart?"

Melanie nodded as she kept crying and shedding tears. She took Kirby's hand and everybody saw how Kirby burnt until nothing else remained of him. Melanie sobbed as she lay on his ashes. Snake and Samus tried to break their way through the night stalkers, but found themselves stopped; Lucario's aura started draining their stamina and they fell to the ground, even breaking Samus' varia suit.

Everybody was at their mercy; if I moved a finger, Pit would make sure kill them all. I closed my fist in rage as I saw Snake and Samus surrounded. Samus took a look at me and I could tell that her eyes showed no only concern and impotence, but fear… she was afraid to lose me. No, she wouldn't… I wouldn't let the same scenario happen twice. I faintly smiled, and then I winked towards her as I slowly moved my left hand towards my waist, or more specific, towards my belt. I reached for the beam blade.

"This is it… Maquiel will join with Palutena! Prepare for the Smash X…!

"REVOLUTION!" I yelled on a war cry.

I unleashed the beam blade just on Pit's head. The blade pierced his head like butter and Pit didn't seem to notice that he was fatally injured. The blade pierced his brain, I was sure, but his body started shaking as it seemed to also start… melting… I wasn't sure what the hell was going on, but all the sudden Pit became into a white liquid substance and it spread on the air as it fell into me, and it was inserted into me by my skin pores. I was the hell scared, I didn't feel anything weird, but I knew that the fact that Pit liquids was inside of me wasn't a good sign, but I had more thing to worry about, I couldn't leave the circle.

The smashers were shocked, nobody believed what I had done and they couldn't act, they were frozen staring at me. Melanie also stared at me with eyes full of sorrow.

I tried to run out of the circle, but it was like an invisible wall had just put around the circle's edge. I tried to break it by punching it and kicking it, but I couldn't.

"Somebody get me out of her!" I yelled terrified.

Melanie got up also terrified; I could tell in her eyes that the trauma of the lost was moving her towards me, terrified that she would also lose me. Her hand grabbed me and pulled me out; somehow she managed to pull me out, but just as I went out, a force pulled her in.

"MELANIE!" I yelled as my sight was covered in pure white.

The circle glowed in such intensity that I doubt that nobody could see a thing, but when I opened my eyes, I wasn't sure what I was staring at.


	30. God is dead

_**A/N**__: Last chapter if we don't count the epilogue, and the end of the very long Wolf's arc overall, so we could enter on the last arc, which I like to call "shaking god's throne" arc, and you'll soon understand why. We're about to enter in Smash X Extinction, so I really hope you've enjoyed this volume so far!_

_

* * *

_

**God is dead**

"Melanie?" I asked.

The whole fighting halted to see what was going. Bowser and Gabriel were both staring curious at the girl, just as Lucario, Sheik, Falco, Snake, Samus and every other smasher around.

I stepped forward and I touched her cheek.

"Melanie, is that you?"

"Yeah…" she replied, but I was not sure yet "It seems I'm not fit to hold Palutena."

I still wasn't sure, she could be lying, but I wanted to believe her words, after all I just wanted to think that we succeed at stopping Pit.

"I feel dizzy." She said "But that doesn't matter, we have to see my brother."

She started walking slowly towards where the subspace was and I followed her; I didn't know how the smashers would react, but they were still at shock. I killed Pit and apparently Palutena didn't come to this world.

Ike was the first to give victory war cry and all his smashers followed him. The battle would surely restart soon so we ran towards where Matthew where. Then, as we got away from the battlefield and nearer to the edge of the park, I grabbed Melanie's wrist and stopped her.

"What is it?"

"You almost never call Matthew "my brother", unless you refer to your bond with him."

She looked at me annoyed, but then she smiled.

"Who would have think I failed on such a small detail."

I jumped backwards and then I pointed my beam blade against her.

"Palutena?"

"In the flesh." She replied smiling "You know, I'm actually glad that this girl was the one who pulled you out, she might not be the strongest vessel, but she is a bit worthy. You can't imagine how much time she is wasting by trying to take control of her own body."

"Give her body back!"

"Of course." She said smiling "You know, I've been growing found of you Maquiel. You have strong resolve, power and heart, I think Pit wasn't wrong, you are my perfect vessel."

"Cut the crap!" I yelled as I taunted with the beam sword "We're going to take you down!"

The most awful pain I've ever felt filled my body. My extremities were all cut off my body and I could see how multiple cuts opened on my breasts, face, waist and hips. I felt how the air cut my forehead like butter, piercing even my brain and I started losing conscious of who I was and what I was doing. And then I was fine.

I fell on my knees as I breathed fast and I stared at the ground. _An illusion? _It felt so real that I had troubles believing I was still alive. Melanie just stared at me and all those terrible things happened too fast. Then I stared at her again with a mixture of rage and fear.

"You are brave enough to stare at me after that pain." She said pleased "Do you still think you have a chance?"

I was sweating, the adrenaline was higher than ever in my body, I held Vode tight and I stared at Palutena with fear, but I stood up. My face was trembling, my eyes tried to avoid direct contact with hers as I pointed the sword towards her. She smiled.

"I like that attitude." She said softly "The badasss girl, who doesn't need to be rescued, who fights on her own, a better character than this mere… damsel in distress…"

"You know shit about Melanie!" I yelled weakly "She's stronger than you think!"

"Actually you are right," she said as she closed her eyes, a bit annoyed "a usual human being would have no chance to bother me, but her soul is just noisy… she tries to crawl her way back to control her body, but let's say that it's like an ant climbing the Everest; she'll die before she succeed."

"Shut it!" I said as I ran towards her.

I tried to slash her with Vode, but just as I gave the first step, I was thrust in the ground.

"You have no idea of what I can do." She said smiling "What about this?"

She snapped her fingers and I saw Robert next to us. He was on his knees, but as soon as he realized he was teleported from the roof back here he stood up and jumped backwards, taking a defense stance. He stared at Melanie.

"How did I get here?" he asked puzzled and scared "What's with those eyes Melanie?"

Melanie's eyes were now completely pitching black. Those were the eyes we used to see when she had a premonition, or something, but this time was different, this time she was being possessed.

"How about turning him into the monster you fought?"

Robert started twisting in pain as a powerful blue aura covered his whole body.

"STOP IT!" I yelled as I stood up once again.

The flow of aura stopped and Robert felt on his knee, sweating as much as I was doing.

"What the hell is going on?" Robert asked scared "What the hell is wrong with Melanie?"

"She is Palutena."

Ike's voice came out of nowhere; he was stepping forward as he bowed towards Palutena.

"I'm happy to see Melanie is your vessel." He said with relief "If it was Maquiel as Pit planned, we would have troubles."

"What the hell does that mean?" I asked pissed off.

"It's simple." Ike said as he kicked me in order to open a path towards Palutena "Just as Pit had you as a candidate for Palutena, I had my candidates for Tabuu and Palutena as well." He smiled "Melanie was my candidate for Palutena, and…" his finger pointed at Robert "he was my candidate for being Tabuu's vessel."

"WHAT?" Robert and I asked at the same time.

"So you are Ganondorf's followers, aren't you?" Palutena asked.

"Ganondorf is dead." Ike replied "I'm the one in charge now."

"Your entire fight…" Palutena said slowly "was so you could summon us both…"

"That's right." Ike said "We can't beat Wolf or the shape shifters in our own, but you could."

"And what made you think you could control me?"

Dry Bowser appeared out of nowhere with a high and mighty jump. Gabriel caught him on mighty speed, but before he could keep his fighting against him, Ike attacked Gabriel as Dry Bowser plowed a circle with his feet. The circle started glowing the same way it did when Palutena was summoned in our world.

Gabriel froze Ike's feet with ease and then he headed towards Bowser in order to break the circle, but the road could not erase the plowed circle.

"Damn it!" he said as he groaned "This is not good!"

I was still paralyzed by Palutena's power; she was suppressing my movement with her weird powers. Gabriel took a quick look at me he covered me.

Away from Palutena's sight I could move once again.

"Thanks…" I said towards Gabriel confused "Why are you helping me?"

"Run away." He mumbled in low voice, ignoring my question "If Palutena takes over you we are doomed."

"I can't leave Melanie like that! You don't understand Gabriel!"

He turned aside and he slapped me.

"Wake up!" he said "She is no longer Melanie and I'm no longer Gabriel! Gabriel is dead, I'm Fox."

The memory of my dream came back alive and made me flinch as I heard Gabriel's word… he was so cold, so calmed, the Gabriel we encountered so many times seemed a little disturbed, always in pain… but since I saw him fighting against Bowser at the beginning of the battle I noticed that there was something different, he was just concentrated in the mission… could it be that…?

"Being Gabriel was too painful…" he said like reading my flows of thoughts "So I just killed him off."

My eyes trembled as I stepped backwards. I wasn't sure who I feared the most back then, if him or Palutena… I was puzzled and I didn't know what to do.

The circle became even brighter, Bowser was about to receive Tabuu.

"Prepare!" Ike's voice was heading towards Robert "You are about to become our savior!"

Robert stepped backwards confused; neither he nor I could understand Ike's words; what good would it make Robert to become Tabuu? Even then Tabuu would have free will; he wouldn't have to help Ike at all. But anyway, the light that came from the circle blinded us all. For an instance we couldn't see a thing, but when we could we saw that Bowser's bones were starting to fall apart and we all could see some kind of soul around the bones.

Ike knelt.

"Your sacrifice won't be forgotten."

"Sacrifice?" I asked terrified.

I had no time to talk further, because the soul left the circle and it flew towards Robert. He ran away, but the flow of the soul created a circle around him and it started to glow, and the same invisible walls were made around Robert.

"HELP ME!" Robert asked terrified "I don't want to be Tabuu's vessel! MAQUIEL! PLEASE!"

I ran towards him, but then I felt that my body was halted.

"If you try to pull him off" Palutena warned "Tabuu will pull you in, and you know, that's not what I want."

"HELP!" Robert screamed as he hit the wall "SOMEBODY!"

Somebody did help Robert. I couldn't believe what my eyes were seeing. The man who came out of nowhere running and who pulled him out of the circle was…

"Richard…"

My voice was broken and my eyes opened wide as I fought as much as I could against Palutena's pressure. I managed to break it a little and I ran towards him as a lone tear fell from my face.

"Dad!" I yelled as I ran towards him.

"Damn you Ed!" Ike yelled.

He was on his way to try stopping him, but Gabriel covered me and he fought Ike back.

"Not in my watch."

I stared at Gabriel for a second; it felt like for an instance he was one of us again, but I knew the truth… and I couldn't care much about it right back then, when I watched that man, equal to my dad about to become Tabuu's vessel.

"I'm not your dad." He said as the soul started flowing towards him "I'm his shadow… my name is Ed and this is the task I was created it for."

The circle disappeared as the soul entered on the body.

Palutena walked slowly towards him; she seemed happy.

"Hello Tabuu." She said smiling "It's time to…"

Ed's hand pierced Melanie's waist and a steam of blood came, but the wound was healed fast as Palutena jumped backwards. She was about to speak, when she coughed a white liquid from her mouth. She seemed scared as she saw the liquid. Ed smiled as his whole body started to ignite.

"What did you give me?"

I was staring terrified how Ed's body started melting.

"WHAT THE HELL DID YOU GIVE ME?"

Palutena started twisting in pain as Tabuu's soul traveled out of his vessel and dissipated in thin air.

My eyes were shedding as much tears as they could, my mind was little less than fucked up and I tried to swallow all up, but I couldn't. Even when he told me he was the shadow of my father, I just could see his shape melting, and my heart beat fast with pain, as I lay puzzled on my knees.

Palutena screamed in pain and her eyes became the usual dark blue color Melanie's eyes were.

"Maquiel…" Melanie said weakly "Robert…"

Robert got next to Melanie faster than I did and he embraced her. I got there too and did the same; I was too scared to lose Melanie, my mind was not working at its fullest, and millions of questions came on my mind, all of them would probably never answered.

"It's going to be ok." Robert said weakly "Don't let her win."

"She's…" Melanie was losing her grip "She's trying to get back…"

"We are here for you!"

"I know…" she said "Tell Link that I'm sorry…"

"Tell him yourself!" Robert said "I don't care what you are sorry for, I'm not letting you go!"

I stared at Robert and how he hugged Melanie tightly.

"While everybody saw me with fear, you stayed near to me." He said as he embraced her even more tightly "You trusted me! You made me see where I belong! You are not going anywhere blondie!"

I was shocked by Robert's word; they were intense and full of affection. I never saw him talking like that to anybody. Was I seeing personal growth?

While we both embraced Melanie, I found no way to speak again, my head was filled with thousands of thoughts; Matthew, Isaac, Ed, Robert, Melanie, Palutena, Tabuu, Wolf, Gabriel, Ike, Kirby, Pit… everything was so, so fast that I just couldn't process it all, all I could do was embracing Melanie so that she wouldn't lose it, but then an energy wave separated us from her and she disappeared in thin air.

* * *

I opened my only eye slowly; I knew I lost, and I knew from the beginning that it would be the outcome. I hopped I was wrong, I hopped that I could show Matthew how weak he still was and so I could convince him to be one with me again, but just as I dreamt, I was meant to lose my son. Yet, as the sight became less blurry I could see him looking at me. He was worried, terrified actually… I could see how happy his face became when he saw my eye opening. I smiled too, I was so glad to see him smiling and his tears fell on my face as he hugged me. I felt his blood joining my own flow of blood around the waist, he had the exact same wound, but he was bleeding less and he was conscious. I sighed.

"The third is the charm." I said.

"What?" Matthew asked.

"This is the third time I got beaten." I said laughing a little bit "The two first times it was Maquiel, and now you…"

"You are going to be ok, dad."

I opened my eye wide as he said that word. Dad… it made me so happy that I couldn't avoid sobbing. I knew I was too weak to keep going, I knew that my time had passed by… Matthew showed me that he was able to defend himself, yet… I didn't want him to pass through all the hell that was waiting for him on the battlefield; I would have gladly gave my life away if that saved Matthew from the living hell of the following battle, the war of gods, but there was no stopping him. He wanted to be here, next to Maquiel, and the price was to face that war. I also wanted to be around; I wanted to be around him and Maquiel, I… I wanted to see Maquiel smiling, I wanted to see her happy, I wanted to make sure that she wouldn't cry never again, but… as long as those feelings were around…

"What are you thinking of?"

"Son… you have to keep moving on."

"Don't talk like it's the end." He replied "It's not."

"I know…" I said weakly "I put everything in motion, I made sure that you wouldn't need my assistance."

"Don't' say that!" Matthew replied sobbing "I need you next to me, fighting!"

"MATTHEW!"

The name was dropped by Maquiel's voice. She and Robert were running toward us. When they got here Robert looked aside, avoiding eye contact with me or Matthew, he seemed ashamed. Maquiel on the other side got next to Matthew and me.

"Matt! That wound…!"

"It's ok." Matthew replied "He is the one who worries me."

Maquiel looked at me and then I remembered why Matthew loved her… and why did I… through those strong eyes lay a great kindness and concern, she only wanted one thing and was to receive affection, like a dog waiting for someone to pet him. She needed it, she needed it so badly that she couldn't take it when I took Matthew away, and so she brought him back, but there was also her burning love, a strong feeling that made her feel that she belonged with Matthew. Because of that feeling I fell for her. I smiled at her and I raised my hand towards her. She grabbed it and she looked me with pity.

"Wolf…" she said faintly "I…"

"You've been through a lot, I can tell." I said weakly as she kept shut "It's ok, I just wanted to feel your hand."

She stared at me with sorrow and tears came by; everybody cried so much, after all they were just kids… on this whole story I can't recall a minute that passed when these children haven't shed tears or cried… they were handling more than what they could take, and yet they were moving on. She was at shock, and she was seeing at me with pain, because she knew how much damage she caused to me, and because she felt and knew that I wasn't doing it because I was bad, but because I was protecting her beloved Matthew.

"Son, give me your hand."

Maquiel left my hand on Matthew's and he grabbed it with both of them.

"From now on, you'll take care of everything. I'll bestow you my power and I'll rest within your soul."

"Dad…"

"I'm never going to wake up… once I get on your soul, my consciousness will be lost for good, but my soul and power will rest within you."

"Why can't we just fight side by side?"

"Because we depend on you." I said "You need as much power as you can take and this is… all I can give you."

He was about to reply, but Maquiel grabbed his shoulder and she nodded. She knew I was right, I could see the fear in her eyes… without a doubt she met Palutena's overwhelming power.

At last, Matthew agreed, and then I forced my body to become a flow of energy that got into Matthew soul and then everything was black… I felt like I was sleeping in middle of a poll filled in dark water.

* * *

"_It's over now brother, you can rest._"

It was far from over. Ike and his minions escaped, the night stalkers were now left without a leader, just as Gabriel's group, whom also left and Melanie disappeared.

Everything was a mess; Maquiel could barely keep it together, she just faked being ok as she was next to Matthew and I… I was broken inside… this entire time I thought Matthew destroyed my life and then I realized that it was actually a scheme of Pit and Lucario, and even though I was sure to have burnt the last remains of Lucario's blood in my system on my fight with Maquiel, he could still take over my mind, and what was worse, he could even wrap Yoshi's mind on his control.

"_He took me by surprise! Next time I'll get him out before you notice!_"

But I knew Yoshi was only trying to make me feel better, but it was impossible. Everything…

¡BOOOOOOOOM!

The three of us turned around and we saw a huge explosion coming from the park.

"The jug head!" Maquiel screamed.

"Jug what?" I asked.

"A hydrogen bomb!" she replied terrified.

"YOU PLANTED A HYDROGEN BOMB?" I asked puzzled and shocked "What are you terrorists now? Our smashers allies were there!"

"Snake must have detonated it…" Maquiel said weakly, she looked like she was about to faint.

"Are you telling me that you actually had a bomb as a trump card?" Matthew asked as shocked as I "Really? A HYDROGENBOMB?" he seemed pissed off "How is that I got to know our formations, most of the plan, and nobody tells me that there is a freaking bomb below us!"

Maquiel wasn't able to reply, she was too shocked staring at the explosion; the blast was only concentrated on the center of the park. Snake must have done something in order to contain the blast in such a tiny perimeter, but I didn't know how he could have contained such a blast. We could see how in a square kilometer the blast of flames and smoke formed a white curtain that filled the sky around that kilometer square, but no human soul, except for us, heard it and the blast also seemed to be starting to… dissipated.

"I've seen many things by now," Matthew said "but I've never seen a blast that last just a few seconds and then dissipate so fast…"

Maquiel was terrified, probably because she had the same thought… Palutena was the only one who had such mighty power, the power to make the most powerful weapon created by mankind to be dissipated in less than a minute… well to be fair, it would be the second strongest weapon, after all she could be considered the first along with Tabuu.

"Let's go…" Matthew said.

I noticed that the huge cut around his waist was no longer bleeding and it was also only a scar filled with grey fur; I assumed that when Wolf got into Matthew's soul he took the chance to fix his wounds.

Maquiel assisted him, Matthew put his left hand around Maquiel's shoulder, and then I sighed and helped him too by letting him put his right hand around my shoulder.

"I thought you hated me." Matthew said.

"I did…" there was so much in my mind that I couldn't waste energy on senseless hatred "but then I learnt the truth."

"Pit?"

"Lucario, actually" I said as we kept walking; Maquiel was sunk on a deep confusion, shock and trauma, so she didn't comment "He took control over me and while he did… I learnt a few things about him and his relationship with the nigthstalkers."

"I see…"

"Tell me something." I asked "Back on the graveyard where we fought some weeks ago, why didn't you deny it? I asked directly why you did it, and you gave me a reason."

"Wolf had his own plot." He explained "He actually wanted to use you and Maquiel… he wanted both of you to become Palutena's and Tabuu's vessel so he could trap you forever on Zero World."

"That's nice." I said while keep walking "So if I hated you enough, I would have sold myself in order to beat you, right?"

"Kinda…" Matthew replied "It's not like he thought it like that."

"Well, if you get to talk with that bastard, tell him that he can suck my dick."

"I thought you'd be angrier."

"Matt, right now I have no energy to waist being mad." I replied "While you had your private tea time with Wolf, Maquiel and I passed through a living hell. I mean, look at her! She can barely walk and speak!"

"Then would you give me a hence up?"

I sighed, I really didn't want to start explaining the whole battle while we were walking; I was exhausted, I wanted a beer and a bed to sleep for two outright weeks. I also would have liked the chance to organize my thoughts, what would I do now? My objective was to take Wolf's soul to fill my emptiness and that was no longer an option.

"Well, I'm still trying to understand everything too, so give me a break, would you?"

Matthew nodded as we got closer. I started thinking on how ever since I got transformed in that bizarre best I got confused and vulnerable; I actually broke apart in front of Maquiel and showed my true self, a scared kid. What could I do with that?

"_Why don't we just do as before? The shape shifters, teaming up together to defeat the greater evil!_"

"It sounds pretty when you put it like that." I replied in my mind "But we are not facing smashers, we are actually entering in god's land."

"_Since when do you fear the enemy?_" the comment hurt "_We always face a stronger enemy than us! Sonic, Roy, Wolf, Pit, all of them were stronger than all of us put together at the time we fought them! And look at us now!_"

"The thing is that we didn't beat even one of them." I replied with sorrow "Matthew and Maquiel were the ones who beat them all, I…" it was hard for me to admit "I'm the weakest of the three of us right now."


	31. Epilogue: The night of revelation

**Epilogue: The night of revelation**

"Is everyone ok?" Maquiel asked as we got to the park.

"Yeah…" Link replied as he woke up "My body hurt as hell, but I'll be fine."

"There are so many grey trophies." Ash said with sorrow "Did all of them die on the explosion?"

"It seems so…" Lucas said deeply hurt "Ness, Toon Link, Diddy and Donkey Kong, Olimar, the Ice climbers, Mr. Game and Watch…"

"Pika… pichu…" Pikachu said with pain.

"The rest of them escaped from the blast…" Ash said with sorrow "How many times must I fight Mewtwo before we can settle all this?"

Ash hit the ground as Lucas and Pikachu got next to him to comfort him. I could tell that all of them were very affected by the lost; enemies or not, they still shared a past together, and their dead affected all of them deeply, even Link, who was the most loyal smasher to our cause, seemed to be really depressed.

I wondered what would the night stalkers do now that Pit was gone, and what would Gabriel do? Wolf was on Matthew's soul now, so would he come back? And what about Wolf's minions? They lost their leader. Ike's party was a mystery too; Bowser died, but Ike just disappeared, maybe with one or two survivors, maybe none. I looked at the ashes we were standing and I gulped as I thought we might be stepping on Kirby's ashes. Maquiel briefly told us that he died… he seemed to be a strong guy to die so easily…

"Where are Samus and Snake?" Maquiel asked concerned and scared.

"Here we are!" Snake replied as he got off a bush along with Samus "It seems the bomb worked."

"Maquiel!" Samus yelled as she ran towards her.

They both hugged each other and Maquiel broke in crying on Samus' shoulder. Samus rubbed her back as Maquiel cried and cried. I felt alone and vulnerable… I would have like a shoulder to cry to as well, but I had to keep it together… someone had to. I stared at the sunset… it was about nightfall.

Matthew walked forward.

"Where is Melanie?"

Link stared at Matthew concerned; he just noticed that she wasn't around, and that she wasn't coming. I waited for a second for Maquiel to say it, but I knew she wasn't going to be able to put it into words, so I did it.

"She became Palutena's vessel."

Snake turned his head down to show his respects towards her. Maquiel was still crying and Samus could not say anything as she tried to calm her down. Both Link and Matthew's faces were full of shock and denial. Matthew fell on his knees as Link screamed out of rage. Ash, Lucas and Pikachu were shocked as well, they couldn't believe my words.

Melanie, the tagalong, the peacemaker, the glue that always made us stick together… she was gone… my heart beat fast, I felt full of rage, she… she didn't deserve it! She was such a pure and good girl! And that's what she was! A girl!

The image of my dojo burning on flames came to my mind. I was too late; the scream of fifty students who were erased of the world's memory, but mines, in middle of the flames came to my ears. And it also came hers; she was walking through the fire when….

A white flash filled my head. What happened to her? A second white flash came in my head, something was trying to avoid me from remembering? Who was her? Why did we get engaged? Why, while my heart beats so hard for her I can't remember?

There was a part of my brain that blocked those memories, that part was trying to protect me from the horror, from the madness I almost fell to back then.

I came back to reality when I heard footsteps. Sophie and Salaric were walking their way to the park. Sophie's eyes were dry, they already cried it all out; Salaric, next to her seemed to be awfully sick.

"I failed…" she said with broken voice as she fell on ashes "My daughter! I want my daughter!" she cried on faint voice "Someone, bring her back please!"

I stared at Maquiel and I detected that she was feeling awfully guilty. She was sadder than I've ever seen her, and it was nothing compared to Sophie's pain who stared hitting the ground as she screamed of sadness. Salaric tried to comfort her, but it was useless. Matthew and Link were also crying.

I looked at the sky and I wondered why god had to be so cruel with us. I couldn't understand how could he throw us trial after trial and never let us have some peace; wouldn't we ever get to be together again? The five of us.

"_Robert!_"

I also got shocked by my thought… I actually wished for the five of us to get back together… I knew that I always acted cocky and I never admitted it, but… by being along with Matthew, Maquiel, Melanie and Gabriel, I felt that I… that I belonged somewhere. I smiled; I would never say that out loud, but the fact that I, at least, acknowledged that in my mind was a sign of personal growth. I knew where I belonged, I saw Maquiel and Matthew and I knew that despite how life threw us apart, at the end we got back together.

"_Robert…_"

Yoshi was shocked and happy; he was so moved by the line of my thoughts that he filled my mind with his warm thoughts.

"_I don't care what you do, I don't care what path you choose, I'll just stick with you until the end of times! I'll be always loyal to you, no matter what!_"

"Thanks, brother…"

"_You… called me… brother…_" Yoshi now was even more moved "_BUUUUUUUUUA! I LOVE YOU ROBERT! BUUUUAAA!_"

I laughed in a very low voice, so that it couldn't seem disrespectful. I stared at all the people around me, they were all broken, and they were all shattered, just like I was. They needed someone who could guide them, someone who could walk them through the misery.

"_That's gotta be you!_" Yoshi said in my mind still sobbing "_Tell them what you thought!_"

"Are you crazy?" I replied "I would never say all that out loud! It's way too corny!"

"_Please, Robert! Tell them how you feel! If they hear you, they will follow you to hell if they must!_"

I sighed… they needed someone to cheer them up, and they needed it fast. I blushed as I thought of my words carefully.

"If I may have your attention."

Everyone's eyes stared at me and I could feel a huge pressure around me. Everyone remained silent, nobody cried, nobody sobbed, they were just so shock that they could only look at me.

"Keep crying is going to do no good." I started "I know I'm not the easiest guy to get to know, and so it's hard for me to say this…" I blushed even more "I actually show myself very cocky and cool because I fear what people would think if they got to know me."

Nobody commented, the eyes were still stuck on me.

"Well, don't expect me to change that!" I said even more blushed "The cocky Robert is the only Robert I know to play, but… right now I have to put him aside and tell you what I feel."

Nobody could believe my words, they were all shocked as they looked at me and I felt that my heart rate increased fast as my face turned even redder.

"The last four years I perfected myself in Judo training and I became a teacher… I was happy, because my dream became true, but the night stalkers took that way from me… and my brain blocked those memories in order to protect me from the pain. For once in my life, I thought I knew true happiness, but… even then, there was something missing. And I knew it was missing, because I experienced true happiness, I just never saw it. And I met true happiness when… the five shape shifters were together."

Matthew's face was priceless; his eyes were so opened wide that it seemed that they were about to pluck out, and his mouth was so opened that I swore that he would break his jaw. I suppressed my laughter and I kept going.

"We always face stronger enemies than us." I said "The first main 'boss', if you may call it that way, was Sonic, and none of us was ready to beat him, but Matthew did it by growing stronger. When I fought Kirby I also got stronger. Then we were pulled fight by fight to new enemies, and every time we grew scared, but we also gained experienced and became stronger. Maquiel was able to bring Matthew back after all her training, and she even killed Pit, and Matthew defeated Wolf once and for all. If there is something I learnt from all our fighting is that our true strength lies on our personal growth, not in some amazing technique or gift by god, no, we grow stronger as we get to grow up. Our ability to grow is unlimited, so as long as we keep moving forward we'll keep growing stronger, and that way we might even get strong enough to defeat Tabuu and Palutena, and bring Melanie back with us."

At this very point I saw everybody crying. _Such a bunch of fragile little girls. _That thought inevitable came to my mind and I almost laughed, but I kept myself serious. Yoshi was right after all, they needed my guidance.

"My name is Robert Wolf, I'm 22 years old, I'm a shape shifter that turns into Yoshi and I'm your comrade." I stared at Maquiel and she gave me a fragile smile while her eyes kept shedding tears "Those were Maquiel's words and they helped me to keep myself together, to remember who I'm and where I belong. You are all broken, all of you have hardass pasts and traumas that follows you around, but I won't allow them take you over! Because you are my comrades! Because you are my friends! Let's get up together! Let's show that Palutena bitch that no one mess with our comrades! I'll show you the path to victory! Leave your fears and your sadness behind and look forward! We are going to figure all this out!"

I sighed and took a deep breathe. I finished saying all that and all of them stared at me astonished. I was still completely red, and I was truly afraid of what they were thinking of me now, because that was the most corny speech I've ever heard on my whole life, and I couldn't believe that the words came from my mouth. I turned aside as I waited for someone to say something. I wasn't even able to look at them, but soon I felt Matthew's hand on my shoulder.

"As you say, Mr. Leader."

I turned aside embarrassed. Leader? Me?

"Hey!" I said "When I said all that I meant we had to grow up together! I never said anything about being a leader!"

"Fine by me." Ash said "He's the best guy for the job."

"Hey!"

"I think so too." Link added "Anyone capable of coming up with such a speech is able to become a leader."

"I also think it's the best." Maquiel continued "You are always cool-headed, and you certainly won't suffer a melt down as often as we do."

"He is always helping us," Samus added "even when he wants to make us think he is not in our side."

"He is just meant to be!" Lucas said "All what he said…!"

"Stop the sobbing, kid!" Snake replied "I agree that the speech was moving, but that's not why I think he'll be a good leader. He'll be a good leader, because he is capable of keeping it together even when he is surrounded by all of you."

"That's very true." Sophie said weakly "Robert has that thing… that's why I believe it when he says that… we can recover my daughter…"

"We all trust you, Robert." Salaric said "You said it yourself; we always get back together eventually."

"Wait a minute!" I said as I shook my head "I'm… I'm…"

"_You won them all, brother._" Yoshi said cheerfully "_You think too low of yourself, but I always knew you were a nice guy deep down!_"

"Screw you, Yoshi!" I said mentally.

I looked at all of them. They were still sad, their faces were dry, tired, and full of sorrow, but there was also something beyond that when they looked at me. There was hope… hope that I sew on all of them by telling them what I felt.

"Oh, what the hell!" I shouted as I turned aside, avoiding eye contact "Just don't expect me to be so cheesy all the time! I'm always gonna be the cocky and distant Robert you knew!"

"We were counting on it." Maquiel said "If not, we'd be worried about you not being you."

"Alright then…" I said looking at them again and giving them a sincere smile "We're going back to Matthew's place, we'll get shower, some rest, and when we recover our stamina, we'll be looking for a way to end this for good. Melanie and Gabriel will be coming back to us and we will end up this war once and for all."

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_**A/N: **__Yep… our new and last protagonist for the last volume is Robert! This is just the beginning of the end and there will be more surprises and more answers as we draw near to the end, and as we do I'd like to ask, which is your favorite character on the story so far? You may reply on a review or a private message as you like; I'm just feeling curious for the readers like :). I hope you enjoyed this volume so far and I hope to see you all on Smash X Extinction!_


	32. FAQ, Next Volume, Extras

Well, it was a really nice surprise to me to sign in into and see that there were many people sending me messages, asking for Smash X Series next volume; I was also asked about some plot holes or lose ends that were expected to close, so here I brought a FAQ and a premise for next volume, I hope you enjoy.

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**FAQ section.**(I actually had a fun time writing it, so thank you for asking questions! I'm really happy to have such loyal readers =D)

**Q:** Ok, Palutena is an overpowered enemy and she took over Melanie, but if she is so powerful, why doesn't she take over Maquiel or Matthew instead?

**A:** While she could, and Maquiel would be essentially powerless against her, the power is greater when the human willingly bestow you his powers, otherwise you are just covered with a meat vessel, the true powers are hidden, and so as the cannon goes it is more effective to have the vessel willingly hosting you so that way you can use all that power. Why does she needs so much power? The answer will come next volume and remain secret until then to avoid spoilers.

**Q:** How the hell did they bury such a weapon like a hydrogen bomb in the park with nobody noticing?

**A:** I don't know if you have seen Lost, but the core of a hydrogen bomb is actually pretty small, a bit larger than a hand, plus Snake is very handy at planting bombs. As for everyone else, Pit did know about the bomb, but he died before he could do something about it, beside he wasn't worried at all, Ike's party retreated before it exploded because they already knew, and the only ones affected where those who came with Wolf, with exception of Gabriel, of course.

**Q:** What's up with Wario? Near the end of Smash X Evolution it seemed his betrayal would have some relevance, and what is it with Marth trying to kill Link? Is it ever going to be explained?

**A:** Yes, next volume it'll be answered briefly.

**Q:** It was amazing when Sophie killed Anna, but what was the point of Anna's appearance in the story if she got killed so early?

**A:** It was so that we could understand some of Gabriel's psychological background, and there's some plot threads related to her, which I'd like to remain secret until next volume.

**Q:** Matthew said in chapter one of Smash X Evolution "My story started the same day Mario's story started (…), anything before that is worthless to tell.", so why there are side stories? Did you change your mind halfway?

**A:** I changed my mind several times, but it's not the case. Matthew said that because **his** story is worthless to tell before that, it's different if we get to see his past through Mario, Sonic, Melanie or Robert's eyes, because that's their stories, not Matthew's. Matthew said that because he was interested in telling which events were really important for him, not that his past wasn't, but he wanted to tell it from the point where his "fate" took a new route.

**Q:** Why did you choose Robert as the last protagonist? With Matthew back I was sure he would take the lead and finish it all by himself.

**A:** That's because Matthew's story is kind of ended; when I finished Smash X Evolution I knew that Matthew already got through all that he could tell us, and although Mario is back with him and we will get more chapters on his point of view, he had already grown up from the arrogant and broken teen that we met at the first chapter into a whole new person, so it would not be fitting to tell more tales about him as he already grew, after all this is a story of personal growth in its core. So instead I knew that Robert, the most broken character at the time, would grow up a lot now and that growth will make him as or more valuable than Matthew next volume, that's one of the reasons, I also chose him because there is a lot of him we don't know and that I want to unfold, besides up until this point in which Wolf is already defeated, I know the plot can and will center around him a lot more now.

**Q:** When I read the side stories in Smash X Evolution there was no reference of Tabuu or Palutena, was this idea brought into Smash X Revolution as a plan or is it just a plot hole?

**A:** A bit of both; while I did imagine Palutena and Tabuu as the last enemies of the story by the time I wrote the side stories, I did not think of them the way I do now, so I kind of tried to come up with a way of introducing them to fit the unfolding plot, yet I was careless and it created a small plot hole. I'll make sure it won't happen again.

**Q:** During the whole Smash X Evolution Ganondorf was mentioned a lot, but now he appeared and died in one chapter, why did you do that?

**A:** Ganondorf proved to be more powerful character when we did not know anything about him, only referred as the man pulling the strings behind the curtain, and so I have plans for him to do so beyond death, his death doesn't mean his end, I just liked the idea that he was more harmful to the characters while being absent rather while being present in the story.

**Q:** What do you base while writing the story?

**A:** A lot of things! There's a lot of stories that I love in TV, anime, manga, movies, books, video games, and more; there's no way I could write a single story without being at least a bit influenced by those, but I also know that the way I unfold the story is unique, so I'm not afraid of copying anything, there'll be some references to some other stories too far ahead in next volume. So far I can mention that my main influences in the story are Bleach, Fringe, Lost, Final Fantasy, Inception, Naruto, V, Inheritance Cycle, Supernatural, among many others! I love fantasy and sci-fi, so they can't be absent on my stories!

**Q:** As the story progressed I noticed that Matthew is kind of the center of everything, if he died, would it be the end of the story?

**A:** Yes and no. The story could unfold a path without Matthew, but it wouldn't be Smash X series at all, but that goes for Maquiel, Robert, Melanie and Gabriel as well. If any of them were missing the story could not unfold, so I wouldn't think that Matthew is the center of the story, the five of them are. I could explain why the plot unfolds so centered in Matthew, but that would actually spoil next volume, so I ask you patience.

**Q:** It was kind of lame to see that many smashers were not developed and died at the end of Smash X Revolution, they were just cannon fodder! Isn't there any way to give them development next volume?

**A:** Sadly no; I had the idea to develop every single smasher in the story, there are even some foreshadows to that in Smash X Evolution, and although I'll try to close every lose end with them, I decided to end next volume with 16 chapters, so although I'll try, I can't make any promises.

**Q:** Why 16 chapters for next volume? Wouldn't you extend it?

**A:** I decided that I'd like to end Smash X Series with no longer than 100 chapters, 54 for Evolution, 30 for Revolution, and 16 for Extinction (I'm not counting epilogues). The decision was made so that I wouldn't make it an infinite story, because I could easily pull out 200 to 400 chapters, but nobody wants to read that much! That's why I decided to put a limit to how many chapters I would write.

**Q:** What's up with the introduction of Isaac? Is he related to Isaac from Golden Sun? Is he a shape shifter? Why is he alike Matthew? Is there some relation to Lex?

**A:** I know you love it when I say this: TO BE SEEN NEXT VOLUME XD. Sorry, no spoilers before it =).

**Q:** Does Sophie's pregnancy have any importance? Why did she just through herself to the battle while being pregnant? And how old is she? Is she in conditions to delivery?

**A:** Yes, the pregnancy is important, and we all know Sophie is not the best mother (actually a rather lousy one I'd said). The decision of going towards battlefield despite her condition is because the character is tired of being in the side lines watching her kids to protect her, and as a result she is not feeling she is a mother of that unborn child just yet. She is actually 38 years old, she had Matthew when she was 17, and married Vincent when she was 18, so she is young and healthy for delivery.

**Q:** The entire thing about Robert, his students and his fiancée, even his aura powers, were put very bluntly this volume. Did you do it because you could not come with any ideas to explain his behavior this volume? Was his behavior made up just so he could act as a plot tool?

**A:** Robert's not a tool! And in order to explain the thing about the death of his students and fiancée I would have to spoil next volume, so I ask you patience once again. No, it wasn't made up to explain his behavior, it actually holds a very key element to next volume, but I'm not gonna say how, and besides his behavior this volume wasn't used as a plot tool, the plot developed along with his decisions and his attitude ;).

**Q:** What is the actual meaning of all this? The guys fight, fight, but it doesn't seem to come to an end, who are the real enemies?

**A:** One of the many things that make this story special is that it's not a fight of good v/s evil, it's a fight of perspective, and as long as the conflict continues so does the story. There are a lot of themes in this story, partnership, family, friendship, betrayal, love, among many others, but the heart on the story lies on the personal growth of the characters, that's how I decided the end of the story for next volume, being loyal to those themes.

**Q:** What is Meta Knight reaction towards Kirby's death? Does he even care or is he too worried about Sophie?

**A:** He obviously cares! Kirby was like a brother to him, so the moment he deceived Wolf was the first step to make him part of our group. The fact that I didn't develop his reaction towards Kirby's death was because I had no time to make a Salaric or Meta Knight POV this volume after chapter 30, but he is quite affected! We'll see the repercussions and learn about their past together next volume.

**Q:** Wolf loves Matthew as his own child because of Vincent's feeling, then why doesn't he feel anything for Melanie or Sophie?

**A:** Kirby explained that Vincent's feelings for Melanie lied in him, that's why Kirby was so overprotective over Melanie, and why Wolf was willing to kill her. While Wolf ate Lex's heart, before that happened Lex already gave Kirby his feelings for Melanie, how? That and the thing about the feelings towards Sophie will be all explained briefly next volume.

**Q:** With Link loving Melanie, Meta Knight falling for Sophie and Wolf in love with Maquiel, do we should expect more smasher/OC pairings? Will there be any kind of sexual theme around it?

**A:** Sexual themes? Hell, no! [I laughed and got scared at the same time while reading the question.] Meta Knight is in Salaric's body so he contents with feeling of Salaric's body around Sophie, Wolf lies in Matthew's heart so is almost the same, Link is more like a human so it's not that scary to imagine him going to the next level with Melanie. What I do not think to do is to create pairings that… well, how can I put it? Be "totally impossible to develop from one species to another" xD, so you won't find anything like suddenly seeing Falco falling for Maquiel and then the two of them becoming a couple, I'd never do that! So no, I think pairings have already gone as far as they can, with one single exception [not mentioned to avoid spoilers].

**Q:** Will you continue this story someday after finishing? Something like a spin off?

**A:** I've imagined it, but I seriously doubt it. First; it's just a fanfic, it's not like an actual book xD. Second; I'm actually more focused in my actual books than writing fanfics, so I also pretend to draw every single of my stories here to an end soon and have a break from it; hopefully in the future some of you will enjoy my actual books as well and I'll be back to fanfictions, just for fun as it always has been.

**Q:** If there was a spin off, how would you call?

**A:** Smash X Adaptation and it would probably be a prequel.

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**About next volume:**

Next volume is the last one, the end of the story lead by both Robert and Yoshi. I've confirmed a date for the update, 7/11/2011, so next month I'll be uploading it as it's almost finished.

Once again the categories will change from this volume Supernatural/Hurt/Comfort to Tragedy/Drama, but do not worry about action sequences, they will always be there, we'll still have smashers' fights and everything, just that now I'll go deeper down into each main characters background. As I've already said it'll contain 16 chapters, the shortest volume of all; chapters will be longer though in order to expand our vision about the characters and the plot. Tabuu and Palutena features this volume as the mains antagonists, but how and in what form they do is to be seen yet. I also will put more emphasis into Robert's and Maquiel's family, they'll play a minor role next volume, but quite important though. Most lose ends will be closed, yet I can't promise to close absolutely everything. I hope to see you all next volume and that you keep enjoying.

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**Extras:**

Musical characters themes: (just for some character, the ones I imagined with these music themes xD).

-Matthew Stryder:

Character theme: Too bad by Nickelback / So far away by Crossfade.

Battle theme: Blown by Breaking Benjamin / Fall apart by Zebrahead.

-Robert Wolf:

Character theme: Boulevard of broken dreams by green day / Toki no namida by Uverworld.

Battle theme: Force your way, Final Fantasy VIII OST by Nobou Umetatsu.

-Maquiel Gilbert:

Character theme: See who I am by Within Temptation / Simple and clean by Utada Hikaru.

Battle theme: Unbreakable by Fireflight.

-Melanie Stryder:

Character theme: Sacrifice by Creed.

Battle theme: Never there by Hoostabank.

-Gabriel Green:

Character theme: Take a look around by Limp Biskit.

Battle theme: Papercut by Linkin Park.

-Wolf:

Character theme: Behind Blue Eyes by Limp Biskit.

Battle theme: Unbreakable by Bon Jovi.

-Link:

Character theme: Life in Technocolors by Coldplay.

Battle theme: The man with the gun machine, Final Fantasy VIII OST by Nobou Umetatsu.

-Sophie Stryder & Salaric (I usually use the same themes for those two):

Character theme: When we were younger.

Battle theme: Last resort by Papa Roach.

-Sonic:

Character theme: Idioteque by Radiohead.

Battle theme: GROOVY GROOVY GROOVY by Uverworld.

-Kirby:

Character theme: Bittersweet symphony by The Verve.

-Battle theme: Discord by Uverworld.

See you all next month =D!


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